Hearings began Monday to determine whether the only Southwest Louisiana man on death row meets the mental criteria to be put to death.

Jason Reeves, 40, of Ragley, raped and murdered 4-year-old Moss Bluff girl Mary Jean Thigpen in November 2001. Convicted of first-degree murder in 2004, his death warrant was signed in June 2012, but that was halted when the defense made a claim of an intellectual disability.

Reeves has reportedly scored between 74 and 85 on IQ tests, including an 85 in May 2002 and a 75 in 2012. A person with an IQ of 70 or below is considered to have an intellectual disability, although the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a range around 70 should be considered.

In addition to a person’s IQ, two other criteria are considered, prosecutor Hugo Holland said — whether the defendant’s condition occurred before age 18 and whether the defendant has significant deficits in adaptive behavior.

“These people are hired to come in and find reasons to get folks off death row,” Holland said. “That is their agenda. They don’t come in and look for the truth. You can tell how they cherry pick things. I’m hoping by the questioning I asked it’s clear that this is just a bunch of hokum.”

Kathy Kelly, with the Capital Post Conviction Project of Louisiana, declined to speak with the media.

Two psychologists, Dr. Bruce McCormick and Dr. James R. Patton, testified Monday. Patton said it was his opinion that Reeves “meets the criteria for having deficits in adaptive behavior prior to 18.”

Reeves has never been diagnosed with an intellectual disorder. However, Patton said, Reeves received substandard grades in his early years of elementary school and was in some special classes.

“You don’t see low grades that often in someone that young,” Patton said.

Reeves received many unsatisfactory grades and “lots of Ds or Cs,” and repeated the fourth and sixth grades, Patton said.

Patton questioned Reeves’ brother, Ronald Reeves (who was convicted of murder in a separate case), and Alice Dykes, with whom Reeves lived with at some point in his youth, about Jason Reeves. Ronald Reeves and Dykes differed on a number of things about Jason Reeves, including whether he listened to music for pleasure, whether he wiped his feet when he entered a building and whether he had a stable group of friends. They disagreed on seven of nine skill areas. Patton said he believed the answers were different because Dykes “confused” ability and typical behavior.

While he questioned Jason Reeves, Patton said he did not rely on that interview in his report because it would “lack objectivity.”

Holland, though, questioned why no one had ever reported Reeves as having an intellectual disability, including Reeves’ mother, who worked with mentally handicapped people.

He said that Reeves had learned four levels of reading during one GED course, and in 1992, when Reeves was about 17, he scored in the normal average for spelling and arithmetic, Holland said.

Reeves’ spelling and reading “test at a much higher level than a middle school dropout,” Holland said.

As part of his questioning, Holland revealed several things about Reeves, including that he was both a regular drug user and a dealer.

Reeves first began drinking at age 12, was using LSD every day by age 15 and had been arrested seven or eight times by the time he was 16, Holland said. He also smoked marijuana and used cocaine.

Holland called Reeves a “drug-addled truant.”

Although Reeves’ mother reportedly said he could not calculate, Holland questioned why Reeves was able to function as a drug dealer. Holland also asked how, if Reeves suffered from an intellectual disability, he had been able to purchase three vehicles on his own and pay car insurance.

Kelly is expected to resume questioning Patton today.

Jason Reeves was convicted of raping and killing 4-year-old Mary Jean Thigpen. (American Press Archives)