OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — The Osceola County man accused of killing his 2-month-old son is trying to use his lack of intelligence as an advantage with his sentencing to avoid execution.
Prosecutors said Larry Perry deserves the death penalty, but Perry’s lawyers said he’s not smart enough to be put to death and have filed a motion to get him a better deal.
“To me it’s ridiculous. It’s just plain ridiculous,” said Perry’s former neighbor Sherry Punt.
Punt lives in the same apartment complex where police said Perry beat his 2-month-old son, Ayden, to death.
Prosecutors are going after the death penalty but Perry’s attorney filed a motion for determination of mental retardation as a bar to execution, which basically means if Perry has a low IQ, he should not be executed.
WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer said sometimes these kinds of motions are seen as delay tactics, but only experts will be able to know for sure.
“If the defense is successful in this motion, it may stop the state from putting the defendant on death row. It won’t stop the state, however, from putting him in jail for the rest of his life,” Sheaffer said.
Perry’s attorney did not comment on the new motion.
The trial is scheduled for this summer.