Testimony concluded Friday in state district court in a week of hearings to determine whether a man sentenced to death for the 2001 murder of a Moss Bluff girl is intellectually disabled.

Jason Manuel Reeves, 40, raped and killed 4-year-old Mary Jean Thigpen in November 2001. He was convicted in 2004, and Judge Mike Canaday signed a death warrant for him in 2012. Reeves’ attorneys, though, have since claimed he is intellectually disabled, which would prevent the state from putting him to death.

Canaday heard this week from mental health experts, detectives who investigated the crime, and prison guards who have interacted with Reeves.

Attorneys for both sides have until March 31 to make their written arguments to Canaday, who will then render his decision.

The law forbids the execution of the mentally handicapped. For Reeves to be declared intellectually disabled, deficits in intellectual functions and adaptive behavior must be found, and those must have begun before age 18.

Reeves’ attorneys say his record shows he is intellectually disabled. Prosecutors say that claim was never made until after his death was ordered.

“We believe our client is intellectually disabled based on the evidence,” Alan Freedman, with the Midwest Center for Justice, said after the hearing. “I do want to say that our sympathies go out to the victim’s family, and I know that it’s hard for them to sit through and listen to this evidence. But we believe that our client shouldn’t be put to death because he’s intellectually disabled.”

Three mental health experts for the defense said Reeves has an intellectual disability. Three other experts, two hired by the court and one by the prosecution, said he does not.

“They are the only ones out of over a dozen experts who have examined the defendant throughout the years, including two defense mitigation experts hired after the Atkins decision,” prosecutor Carla Sigler said, pointing out that one of the defense experts did not personally examine Reeves. “There are only two people out of a dozen who have looked at his mental ability who said he’s mentally disabled.”

Reeves’ troubled childhood was brought out during the week, including that he was sexually abused as a child, struggled in school and suffered the loss of a sister.

“A difficult childhood does not mean you’re exempt from criminal responsibility when you’re not, in fact, intellectually disabled,” Sigler said. “No one would deny that, but that doesn’t excuse what he did and it doesn’t make him intellectually disabled.”

Prosecutors argued that Reeves’ struggles in school were made worse when he began using alcohol and drugs at an early age. Reeves reportedly dropped out of school in the seventh or eighth grade. He was able to function as an adult, holding down jobs, prosecutors said.

District Attorney John DeRosier believes that $500,000 will be spent on Reeves’ post-conviction relief. The death penalty is used sparingly in Calcasieu Parish, but there is a purpose when it is pursued, said DeRosier, who took office in 2006.

“That 4-year-old baby girl who was raped and murdered so many years ago, we are her warriors,” DeRosier said. “The Bible said that people should not be afraid of civil authority unless you violate the law, and if you violate the law, you should be afraid because God has not given us the sword without purpose. And the purpose of that sword is to inflict the wrath of the Lord on evildoers. Salvation for this defendant is up to God. All we’re trying to do is expedite that process.”

Reeves was arrested in Acadia Parish in 1995 for molestation. He was arrested in Jeff Davis Parish in March 1996 for indecent behavior with a juvenile, for which was given a four-year suspended sentence and put on probation. In 1997, he pleaded guilty to another charge of indecent behavior and was sent to prison to serve the four-year term.

(MGNonline)