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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Two men from north Mississippi say that more than 26 years after their father, stepmother and younger half-siblings were killed, it's time for the state to execute the men convicted of the crime.
Dean Parker and Scott Parker of Batesville said Monday that they're upset the Mississippi Supreme Court recently told a circuit judge to review an intellectual-disability claim by Anthony Carr, one of the two men convicted in the 1990 slayings.
Carl and Bobbie Jo Parker, their 12-year-old son Gregory and 9-year-old daughter Charlotte were killed in their home in rural Quitman County.
The sparsely populated county had to raise taxes three consecutive years to pay for the defense of Carr and Robert Simon Jr.
Scott Parker, 51, and Dean Parker, 53, both said the appeals process has dragged on too long.
"I pay tax money to support people who killed my family," Dean Parker said. "These gentlemen are going to die of old age in prison."
Carl Parker was a hard worker who grew up on a farm, served in the Navy and returned home to Mississippi, Scott Parker said. Carl Parker's first wife — Dean and Scott's mother — was killed when all four members of the family were in a car crash in 1973. Their vehicle was hit by another.
Bobbie Jo married Carl while Dean and Scott were still growing up, and the couple had two children together. Scott Parker said his mother was a talented piano teacher, and he described Gregory and Charlotte as "very smart."
"I wouldn't wish this crime on no person in the world," Scott Parker said.
In May 2011, Simon's execution was only four hours away when a federal appeals court ordered a halt to consider his intellectual disability claim. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his appeal in March.
Carr was convicted of four counts of capital murder in a trial that was moved to Alcorn County.
During arguments before the state Supreme Court in May, attorney Alexander Kassoff, who works for the state Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel, said Carr, 50, cannot be executed. Kassoff cited a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling barring states from executing people who are intellectually disabled.
Jason Davis of the Mississippi attorney general's office countered that Carr's death sentence should be upheld even though two psychologists disagreed about his mental abilities.
In a ruling Aug. 11, justices said Circuit Judge Charles E. Webster dismissed Carr's claim of intellectual disability based on Carr's IQ score, but that the judge failed to consider whether Carr had "adaptive" behavior problems with reading, social skills or practical skills such as understanding how to use money or follow schedules. The Supreme Court did not set a deadline for Webster to reconsider Carr's claim.
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