Last year, Georgia executed Willie James Pye, whose IQ was low enough to indicate that he was intellectually disabled, according to his lawyers.
That rattled Glennville Republican state Rep. Bill Werkheiser, who months earlier had introduced legislation to make it easier for someone facing the death penalty to prove they are intellectually disabled and thus ineligible to receive the death penalty.
His bill didn’t get a vote in committee, but a similar effort this year has garnered more legislative support — it passed the House unanimously Tuesday and is now pending in the Senate.
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