You might find some interesting information and/or evidence in a death row inmate's property on the issue of his mental retardation claim. Cami Sandifer, Assistant Chief Investigator, was able to find that our defendant maintained a copy of A Tale of Two Cities and Lord Jim in his limited space - and no pictures in those books!!! They log everything in and out. My guess is that defense attorneys and detah penalty opponents will begin to have the defendants release much of that type of evidence in the future.

Items in their home or cell are absolutely relevant to the defendant's level of adaptive functioning--the second prong of the mental retardation definition. TDCJ-ID inventoried John Paul Penry's cell prior to his retrial last year. Among the items included on the inventory were a typewriter, calculater, Webster's dictionary and several items of pornography. Pretty good stuff for a rape/murderer claiming to be retarded, huh?