Robert Ladd, 57, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at the Walls Unit in Huntsville today for the 1996 murder of Vickie Ann Gardner, despite assertions stating that he is mentally handicapped.
Ladd
Ladd was sentenced to death based on his involvement in the murder of Gardner, backed by the discovery of his DNA on the victim’s body and his hand print at the crime scene.
Ladd’s criminal background includes one imprisonment in Dallas County for an unknown charge, according to TDCJ’s records, as well as a conviction and life sentence for the 1980 murders of his cousin and her two young children.
During the time of Gardner’s murder, Ladd had been released under mandatory supervision in Tyler. He was released October 1992.
On September 1996, Ladd raped and murdered Gardner after binding her wrists and legs. Gardner was found to have been bludgeoned with a hammer. Her body was then set on fire while her home was robbed.
After receiving a delay in execution on December 8, 2014, due to an order not being signed in time, according to the Daily Tribune, Ladd will be executed today.
According to the Daily Tribune, Gardner’s surviving kin were more than happy to hear of Ladd having his final appeal to the federal courts denied.
After facing the death of Gardner, the victim’s sisters, Teresa Wooten and Kathy Pirtle, have awaited retribution for their loss for more than 18 years.
Wooten was “ecstatic when she learned late last week Ladd’s appeal to the federal court was rejected,” according to the Daily Tribune.
While Ladd’s end encroaches, many organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, continue to fight for a stay of execution based on the Atkins v. Virginia statute of 2002, a ruling made by the Supreme Court that forbids the execution of those considered “mentally retarded.”
Additionally, according to the Federal Crime Bill of 1994, while mental retardation does not have a set definition in the eyes of the federal government, it is against federal law to execute someone who is mentally retarded.
A general consensus among a number of states has determined that mental retardation is defined as “substantial limitations in present functioning [. . .] characterized by significantly [below average] intellectual functioning [. . .] with related limitations in two or more of the following applicable adaptive skill areas: communication, self-care, home living, social skills, community use, self-direction, health and safety, functional academics, leisure, and work. Mental retardation manifests before age 18.”
Though many states have embraced this statute, Texas does not have any laws addressing the limitations of executions based on mental deficiencies.
According to the ACLU, Ladd should receive a commuted sentence, based upon his IQ which has been measured at 67 points. Ladd later retested at 87 points during an investigation into his mental status.
Ladd has also gained some notoriety for submitting a letter to the Letters from Death Row series published by Gawker Media.
In a letter he claims to have had help writing, Ladd discusses the issues of a stay of execution that was issued in 2003 based on a childhood record of retardation.
“On April 23, 2003 I was given a stay of execution on the mental retardation issue when I was 13-years-old and in state custody,” Ladd said.
Ladd went on to provide evidence of his diminished mental capacity and accusing a federal judge of bias in his ruling against Ladd’s appeal.
“The federal Judge, R. Schell, was very bias (sic) and you can read that in his opinion it didn’t make any difference how much evidence I had he was going to rule against me and that is what [he] did,” Ladd said.
He goes on to mention his lawyer’s refusal to leave his case, despite not seeing Ladd in 10 years, and how the poverty his family suffers prevents him from hiring a replacement attorney before pleading with Gawker’s Hamilton Nolan to spread the word of his impending death.
Regardless on the ruling of Ladd’s mental status, it seems that four deaths at the hands of Ladd will lead him to the death chamber, if not interrupted before 6 p.m.
It's killing time again, regardless, what one has done, it does not give the right to execute. texas has got a problem with essential human rights.
and what of the rights of those this guy as killed? They lost all of their because this man stole them and their lives. He plays the system over and over to not pay with his life for taking theirs! I believe that ANYONE that kills another must be insane to a degree......that does not give them to right to kill. And I believe that the death penalty is not a deterrent if is not used the way it should be. The average stay on death row is over 14 years now. Why?? Appeals are fine but, it they are guilty it is too long!
Thanks Larry for sharing your thoughts with me. I 'am opposing the death penalty and I am not willing to participate as human being in torcher to kill someone. Nevertheless kind regards to you! Marinella
"After facing the death of Gardner, the victim’s
sisters, Teresa Wooten and Kathy Pirtle, have awaited retribution for
their loss for more than 18 years."
They are scum of the earth. They are no better than the worst mass murderers on death row. I PISS ON BOTH OF THEM!
Wow, you are one opinionated and apparently fairly violent person. Ever consider anger management? You might just benefit but that's just my opinion and I'm not about to shove that down your or anyone else's throat.
Liberals like you should not be allowed to even speak. Given that....no one really cares what you believe or think. You believe your rights are more than anyone else's and that is not true. But if someone agrees with you they can have rights of there own.
I must tell you something very important and pay very close attention. More right are very much higher than yours. The reason is that they are mine and not yours. I will keep every single one of mine.....no matter what you might think or say.
If you can not play well with others.....your rights will ALL be gone soon! You are very close to being on the same level as the murder you seem to like so very much.
And So you know......my IQ is so much higher then yours, you would not believe it! Understand?? Or do I need to talk even slower for you!!
people like you or the biggest piece of $#!t that walk the earth .
I piss on you . and if I new when you died I would come and piss on your head stone.
I don't no why they let this person back on the streets after killing his kin not one but 3 people.
lethal injection was being to nice.....
dana, you are illiterate. Go back to your pigsty.
what's the issue now, its always something. The man committed a crime he killed people, i don't care if his IQ is 2 they did the right than when they executed him enough said.