Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Convicted man claims retardation

A man who has been sentenced to death for his role in the murder of a Nevada County couple has until July 31 to submit any proof he has that he is mentally retarded and shouldnt be executed. The scheduling order was filed in U.S. District Courts Western District in Texarkana.

Joe Louis Dansby was arrested in 1995 in Oklahoma after local law enforcement officials worked on the case for more than two years.

Jeff Lewis and Malissa Clark were found murdered in a rural area of the county on May 16, 1992. Lewis was 24 and Clark was 21. Reports at that time indicate that the pair were engaged to be married.

They had reportedly spent an afternoon and evening riding a four wheeler and then riding around in Lewis pickup. When they didnt return home that Saturday evening, a manhunt was formed. It wasnt until the early evening hours the next day that the bodies were found.

According to reports at the time, law enforcement officials had no suspects immediately following the incident. It wasnt until about five months later that then-Nevada County Sheriff Abb Morman announced that there was a suspect, but that no arrest had yet been made. In August of 1995, Dansby was arrested and charged with both murders.

According to court records, the case came to trial in Nevada County in June of 1997. At the end of the trial, the jury found Dansby guilty on both counts. Following a deliberation regarding possible sentences, Dansby was sentenced to death by lethal injection for each of the murder counts.

Following the verdict and sentence, attorneys for Dansby appealed the case, citing their opinion that Dansby is mentally retarded. On Sept. 22, 2005, the court granted the defenses motion granting testing for Dansby.

That court-ordered testing was performed and Dansbys capabilities are apparently less than the level required by the court to be considered mentally competent. The attorneys are now asking that the death sentence not be imposed, based on that fact.

In his ruling filed on June 14, U.S. District Judge Harry F. Barnes indicated that the court is willing to hear the argument, but set a deadline for all information to be turned in. The order reads, in part, In order to efficiently and effectively review petitioners (Dansbys) case, the court has determined that any outstanding issues concerning the presentation of evidence on the issue of mental retardation needs to be resolved in a timely fashion.

The order indicates that the information to be filed is to be anything in relation to his mental retardation claim.

A timeline of the case indicates that a stay was issued in the case in 2003 effectively stopping the clock on invoking the death penalty, but that stay was lifted in May of 2004.