Keen v. State
Annotate this CasePetitioner was sentenced to death in 1991 after pleading guilty to murder and rape. In 2010, Petitioner filed a petition seeking to reopen his post-conviction proceeding on the ground that he possessed new scientific evidence of his actual innocence. His evidence consisted of a newly-obtained I.Q. test score purporting to show he could not be executed because he was intellectually disabled. The trial court denied the petition, determining, as a matter of law, that Petitioner's I.Q. test score was not new scientific evidence of his actual innocence. The court of criminal appeals affirmed because the I.Q. test score did not amount to scientific evidence of actual innocence for the purpose of Tenn. Code Ann. 40-30-117(a)(2) and because Coleman v. State did not announce a new rule of constitutional law under section 40-30-117(a)(1). The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) the General Assembly, when it enacted section 40-30-117(a)(2), did not intend for the phrase "actually innocent of the offense" to include ineligibility for the death penalty because of intellectual disability; and (2) Coleman v. State does not establish a new rule of constitutional law that must be applied retroactively under section 40-30-117(a)(1).
Court Description: Authoring Judge: Justice William C. Koch, Jr.
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