(Neb)-'Boys Don't Cry' Deathrow Inmate Challenges On Mental Grounds

By: John Axtell Posted at: 04/03/2018 06:19 PM
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Attorneys for the Nebraska death row inmate whose case inspired the 1999 movie "Boys Don't Cry" argue in a new motion that his sentence should be changed to life in prison because he has the intellect of a child.

      The motion says recent IQ testing shows 46-year old John Lotter is intellectually disabled and therefore can't be put to death under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling forbidding the execution of the intellectually disabled.
 
      Lotter was sentenced to death for his role in the 1993 killings of Brandon Teena, a 21-year-old transgender man, and two witnesses, Lisa Lambert and Philip DeVine, at a farmhouse in Humboldt, about 75 miles south of Omaha.
 
     Nebraska law says an IQ of 70 or below is presumptive evidence of an intellectual disability, and court records show Lotter scored a 67 last year, which would be the equivalent IQ of an 8-year-old. The judge would need to grant an evidentiary hearing to consider the issue.

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