Justices Review Texas Death Penalty Lawsuit

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments this Wednesday regarding a procedural dispute involving a Texas death row inmate.

The case centers on Dexter Johnson, who was convicted of capital murder in 2006 for the killing of 23-year-old Maria Aparece. Johnson’s execution, originally set for May 2019, was stayed after a federal court found he likely suffers from an intellectual disability.

Johnson’s legal team raised the disability claim days before his scheduled execution. They cited the 2013 release of the DSM-5, which shifted diagnostic focus from rigid IQ thresholds to adaptive functioning deficits. Two experts concluded Johnson met the definition of the disorder under this new framework.

Ethan Nutter, a lawyer representing the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in an amicus brief, stated that the medical community’s understanding of intellectual disability has changed over the last two decades. He noted that the Supreme Court has previously ruled it unconstitutional to execute individuals with this disability.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Correctional Institutions filed a petition for review in February 2026. The department argued that the Fifth Circuit’s decision erases strict limits on claims based on new evidence. The brief stated that for the families of victims, justice delayed is justice denied.

Protasio Aparece, the victim’s father, filed a separate amicus brief. His legal team wrote that he has an interest in seeing justice carried out for his daughter and wants to avoid further decades of delay for other families.

The central legal question is whether federal courts can accept a second or successive habeas petition. Nutter described this as the narrow issue before the justices. The Court is expected to issue a decision by June 2027.