Attorneys for a Nebraska death row inmate whose case inspired the 1999 movie "Boys Don't Cry" say he should be found ineligible for the execution because he has he intellect of a child.
John Lotter was sentenced to death for his role in the 1993 killings of Teena Brandon, who was a transgender man and went by Brandon, and two witnesses, Lisa Lambert and Phillip DeVine, at a farmhouse in Humboldt, about 75 miles south of Omaha.
The Lincoln Journal Star reports that Lotter's lawyers filed a motion stating that recent IQ testing shows that Lotter, 46, is intellectually disabled and therefore can't be put to death under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling forbidding execution of the intellectually disabled.
Nebraska law says an IQ of 70 or below is presumptive evidence of an intellectual disability. Court records show Lotter scored a 67 last year, which would be the equivalent IQ of an 8-year-old.
The judge will need to grant an evidentiary hearing to consider the issue.
