Death penalty unlikely for retarded Nevada inmate

Friday, Nov. 15, 2002 | 2:17 a.m.

By BRENDAN RILEY

Associated Press Writer

CARSON CITY, Nev.- A top prosecutor has withdrawn an earlier objection to a no-parole life sentence for a mentally retarded Nevada inmate - even though he says the inmate still deserves a death sentence.

In a letter to the state Pardons Board, which will consider the case of Thomas Nevius next Wednesday, Clark County District Attorney Stewart Bell noted the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled against executions of mentally retarded people.

Bell also said three experts appointed by the Pardons Board to evaluate Nevius, 46, convicted of a 1980 burglary and murder in Las Vegas, determined that he has mild mental retardation.

The district attorney said he still believes Nevius deserves a lethal injection because of his crimes - including the Nevada murder and a conviction for second-degree murder in 1971 in Philadelphia - but "candor and intellectual honesty" require him to back off.

But Bell also said Nevius should "never be released from custody under any circumstances," and his office would "vigorously oppose" any future move to ease a no-parole life sentence.

Michael Pescetta, a deputy federal public defender who specializes in death penalty cases, said the no-parole life term is what his office wants for Nevius.

On various tests, Nevius has scored slightly above and slightly below the IQ level of 70 cited in state law as evidence of mental retardation. The Supreme Court's ruling, in a Virginia case, lets states rely on their own definitions of mental retardation.

The Pardons Board, chaired by Gov. Kenny Guinn, delayed a decision on Nevius last year pending the latest analyses of the inmate's mental state - analyses that suggested the inmate has the mental ability of an 11- or 12-year-old.

"Had even one of the experts reached a definitive diagnosis of borderline intellectual functioning, the state would feel a strong duty to the public and the victim's surviving family members to urge this board to deny the application of Mr. Nevius," Bell wrote.

"Although any of the experts could have reached such a conclusion, none of them did. Each of the experts categorize Mr. Nevius as at the upper level of mild mental retardation."

Nevius was convicted of killing David Kinnamon in Las Vegas in 1980. He and three others, including his younger brother, broke into the victim's home in July 1980. Prosecutors said that as Nevius tried to rape Kinnamon's wife at gunpoint, Kinnamon came home from work and was shot to death.

Nevius' execution had been scheduled three times but was delayed by appeals. Nevada's last execution was in April 2001, when Sebastian Bridges was executed after refusing to challenge his conviction for the murder of his estranged wife's lover.

Bridges' execution was Nevada's ninth since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to revive capital punishment in the mid-1970s. All but one of Nevada's executions have involved inmates who wouldn't appeal their cases.