US appeals court lets Frenchman off death row in Texas
The only French citizen currently on death row in the United States had his punishment reduced to a life sentence after a Texas appeals court ruled in his favour earlier this week.
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Joseph Jean was sentenced to death in January 2011 after killing two teenagers with a baseball bat in April 2010 in Baytown, outside Houston, Texas.
His lawyers have argued since 2013 that Jean has an intellectual disability, rendering him ineligible for the death penalty. The US Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that capital punishment is unconstitutional for such individuals.
In 2021, a judge agreed that Jean had a mental disability, and on Wednesday a Texas appeals court confirmed that finding.
His mother said she was very happy about the ruling.
"I'll be able to hold him in my arms, I'll be able to touch him," said Lina Jean, hoping to visit her son more often now that he will be moved from death row..
As a condition of his life sentence, Joseph Jean will never be eligible for parole.
Jean, age 50, was born in the US Virgin Islands to two French parents.
His mother came to Texas in 1985, with five of her seven sons in tow, to join Joseph Jean's father.
(With newswires)
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