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Prosecutors do not deny that Penry has a low IQ, but they claim he is not nearly so limited as he is portrayed. Texas attorney general John Cornyn has alleged that Penry "can be purposefully deceptive." Prosecutors point out that Penry, who had been on parole less than three months for a rape conviction when he killed Carpenter, confessed to the crime and said, "I told her that I...hated to kill her, but I had to so she wouldn't squeal on me." A clear indication, they contend, that he discerned the gravity of his act. The stay left Carpenter's family despondent. "This is not the way the justice system should be set up," said the victim's brother Mark Moseley, a former placekicker for the Washington Redskins.
The Supreme Court will decide in the next few weeks whether to consider Penry's appeal or send it back to the Texas courts, which would then most likely set a new execution date. The intricacacies of the controversy, however, reportedly elude Penry. Prison officials said that upon learning his life had been spared a second time, Penry asked if he could still eat his "last" meal--cheeseburgers and French fries.
--With reporting by Hilary Hylton/Austin