MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A federal appeals court has denied the appeal of a man sentenced to die for the 1989 murder of a woman.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday turned down the appeal of Mark Allen Jenkins.
Jenkins was convicted in the death of Tammy Hogeland, who was last seen April 18, 1989 at the Birmingham restaurant where she worked. Her body was later found by a highway.
Lawyers argued Jenkins, who has an IQ of 76, is intellectually disabled and cannot be executed.
Judges said the lower court did not err in finding him eligible. Judges noted childhood tests that measured his IQ in the 80s.
The Supreme Court bans the execution of mentally disabled people but states have some discretion to decide how to determine intellectual disability.
