Georgia's highest court on Wednesday declined to hear an appeal filed for a man on death row claiming that his execution would be unconstitutional because he has cognitive impairments that cause him to function like a young child.
Lawyers for Virgil Delano Presnell Jr. had argued in a filing with the Georgia Supreme Court that he suffered brain damage caused by his mother's heavy alcohol use during pregnancy. A 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that prohibits the execution of intellectually disabled people includes people like him with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, they argued.
