DALLAS — The Dallas County District Attorney's office on Tuesday released a statement opposing the execution of a man who shot and killed a Dallas police officer in 2005, arguing that Juan Lizcano shouldn't be subjected to the death penalty because he is intellectually disabled.
Lizcano was sentenced to death in 2007 for the shooting death of Dallas officer Brian Jackson.
Jackson was responding to a domestic dispute when Lizcano shot him multiple times.
No execution date has been set for Lizcano, but the trial court has until March 28 to file fact findings and conclusions to the Court of Criminal Appeals.
The Dallas District Attorney's office hadn't opposed Lizcano's execution, but after the U.S. Supreme Court in February issued a decision in favor of death-row inmate Bobby Moore – determining that Moore is intellectually disabled and not eligible for the death penalty – "we felt we no longer could oppose relief for Mr. Lizcano," District Attorney John Creuzot announced in a news release.
Based on evidence in the case, Lizcano "has proven by a preponderance of the evidence that he is intellectually disabled," said Creuzot, who took office in January after defeating Faith Johnson in the November election.
Lizcano's attorneys, in a filing while appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2014, argued that Lizcano, who grew up in Mexico, "could not learn like other children" and that he stopped going to school at sixth grade, because he was 15 and too old for the school.
As an adult, he came to the U.S. illegally and "never mastered basic adult skills," such as showering and brushing his teeth, his attorneys said. He never scored above a 69 on an IQ test and scored as low as 48.
If Lizcano is granted relief, he would still remain in prison for life, without the possibility of parole.
