Death Penalty For Bayou Killer

A jury took just over 90 minutes Thursday night to decide on the death penalty for twice-convicted killer and suspected serial slayer Derrick Todd Lee, rejecting defense claims that he is mentally retarded.

As he was being taken from the courtroom, Lee held up the "V" sign for victory and shouted to his family, "God don't sleep. ... They don't wanna tell you about the DNA they took eight times," continuing his suggestions that law enforcement planted the DNA evidence that helped convict him.

Lee's mother and sister each shouted, "I love you," while the victim's family members gasped, cried and hugged each other.

Lee, 35, was convicted Tuesday for the first-degree murder of 22-year-old Charlotte Murray Pace, who was raped and riddled with more than 80 stab wounds in a brutal struggle throughout her home in May 2002.

Lee has been linked by DNA evidence to the deaths of seven women from 1998 to 2003, and prosecutors introduced the gruesome details of four other killings in the Pace trial.

"I feel like they are finally, finally, finally given some moment of peace and justice," said Pace's mother Ann.

Jurors earlier in the day heard conflicting psychiatric testimony from defense and prosecution witnesses. A 2002 Supreme Court decision forbids the execution of the mentally retarded.

In closing arguments, lead prosecutor John Sinquefield urged the jury to give Lee the death penalty, saying he was a "serial killer trying to hide behind a claim of mental retardation to escape the punishment he so richly deserves."

Lee's attorney pleaded for his client's life.

"I don't know what kind of evil must have descended upon that man to produce what you saw in those pictures. I do not understand that evil. I do not fathom that evil. But that evil is not defeated by sticking a needle in an arm," attorney Bruce Unangst said.

Lee already faces a life sentence for his August conviction in the slaying of a woman in West Baton Rouge Parish.

After the jury's death penalty decision, another Lee attorney, Mike Mitchell, said: "We wish the outcome had been different, but we accept the outcome as it is. Now we'll move on to the appeal."

The judge will formally sentence Lee to death on Dec. 10.

"Tonight the south Louisiana serial killer got south Louisiana justice, and south Louisiana justice for the serial killer is the death penalty," Sinquefield said.

During testimony earlier Thursday, a Louisiana State University professor said Lee scored 65 on an IQ test, below the 70 deemed the threshold for mental retardation.

"All of the requirements for mental retardation are met for Mr. Lee, pretty much without question," psychologist Drew Gouvier said.

The test — combined with his problems understanding language, coping with situations and making plans — showed Lee is mildly retarded, Gouvier said.

Sarah Deland, a Tulane University psychiatrist, agreed that Lee is retarded. But after she also said Lee wasn't qualified to become a pipefitter, prosecutors brought in two men who said Lee worked for a construction company in that capacity.

Prosecutors also called a psychiatrist and a psychologist.

"Once you look at the entire picture, it's very clear this man is not mentally retarded," the psychologist, Donald Hoppe, said.

Hoppe said the IQ test Gouvier used gives a range of scores that shows Lee's IQ could be anywhere from 62 to 70, and he said a person's IQ score might change from day to day.