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I realize there's a lot going on right now, and that in the context of our political turmoil, one life can seem insignificant. But please read this. Corey Johnson is set to be executed this Thursday — despite the fact that he is intellectually disabled. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/opinion/death-penalty-mental-disability.html
Like many defendants, Corey Johnson did not have the resources to hire his own defense team at trial. He was given court-appointed attorneys, good ones. But they weren't experts in intellectual disability, and neither was the psychologist they brought in to evaluate Corey.
That psychologist, entirely competent and celebrated in his field, was not specialized in developmental or intellectual disabilities. He gave Corey an IQ test, scored it at 77 full scale, and told Corey's attorneys that, based on the score, an ID defense wasn't possible.
But what his attorneys and their psychologist did do was present to the jury as much information about Corey as they could: That he read, wrote, and did math at an elementary school level, that he remained in the second grade for three years, that he had been in special ed.
Nevertheless, they also explicitly told the jury Corey was not intellectually disabled. So the jury sentenced him to death.
When Corey's post-conviction attorneys received his case, they brought in J. Gregory Olley, a widely recognized expert in intellectual disability.
When Corey's post-conviction attorneys received his case, they brought in J. Gregory Olley, a widely recognized expert in intellectual disability.
They also brought in two other clinicians who have researched, published, and treated intellectual disability in patients for decades. When Dr. Olley looked at the original IQ score given to Corey, he realized it hadn't been adjusted for the Flynn Effect.
The Flynn Effect describes a phenomenon in which IQ scores tend to rise annually. Since IQ scores reflect a person's performance *relative* to population-level averages, the period when the tests are 'normed' matters. Old tests yield inflated results in contemporary patients.
Adjusted for the Flynn Effect, Corey's IQ is really 73 — within the clinically recognized range of intellectual disability, between 70 - 75 points.
Corey's educational history, his IQ and other test results, and the fact that he still tested at an elementary school level when he was evaluated at age 45 all suggest he is a person with a real, serious intellectual disability — something multiple experts agree on.
The Arc ( @TheArcUS) a major advocacy organization for people with intellectual disabilities, has denounced the scheduled execution of Corey Johnson. https://thearc.org/corey-johnson-must-not-be-executed/
