Reeves stays in Calcasieu for now
Published 8:38 am Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Southwest Louisiana’s only inmate on death row will continue to be jailed in Calcasieu Correctional Center until his mental competency is ruled on, the state’s high court ruled last week.
The Supreme Court also said that all of Jason Reeves’ correctional records should be available in determining whether he meets the mental standard for execution.
Reeves, 39, of Ragley, is on death row for the November 2001 murder and rape of a 4-year-old Moss Bluff girl, Mary Jean Thigpen.
After Reeves was scheduled in May 2012 to be put to death, he claimed to be mentally handicapped, thus unfit to be put to death. Reeves’ execution has been delayed and an intellectual disability exam granted. Reeves scored a 75 on an IQ test given in 2012. However, in May 2002, he scored an 85.
While an IQ of 70 or below is considered to be an intellectual disability, the Supreme Court ruled in May that a person’s IQ score should not be considered as a hard-line number, but as a range.
Reeves will now be examined by a panel of two court-appointed psychiatrists who will assess his mental abilities. The psychiatrists will present their findings to Judge Michael Canaday in October.
“We are prepared to go forward with our hearing and prove that he is not mentally disabled,” prosecutor Carla Sigler said in a statement.
In July, Canaday ruled that all of Reeves’ records from Calcasieu Correctional Center and Angola State Penitentiary (where Reeves has spent his time on death row) were to be made available. The judge also ordered that Reeves be kept in Calcasieu so that he would be available for all hearings and so the psychiatrists would not have to travel to Angola.
Reeves appealed to the state Supreme Court. In an appeal filed by his attorney, Kathy Kelly with the Capital Post Conviction Project of Louisiana, Reeves claimed that being forced to turn over all the documents was an infringement of his fifth-amendment right against self-incrimination and being held in Calcasieu was an infringement on his eighth-amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment. Reeves also said the court psychiatrists lack the required qualifications needed to make an assessment of an intellectual disability.
The Supreme Court did not include a written reason for its rejection of the requests.
Reeves’ appeals were “riddled with frivolous complaints about the manner and method in which his request was granted,” the prosecution said in a response penned by Sigler.
The defense argued that Reeves’ disciplinary records, in particular, were irrelevant and should not be turned over. The Fifth Amendment protects against a defendant having to turn over “incriminating evidence against himself,” the defense argued.
“How this defendant has conducted himself while incarcerated is the best and most recent evidence of these factors,” the prosecution responded.
The defense said he should remain in Angola because he is receiving mental health treatment that he cannot receive in Calcasieu. The prosecution argued that Calcasieu Correctional Center can provide him with mental-health and medical care.
Kelly did not return a phone call seeking comment.
