Lawyers for condemned inmate Eric Nenno say his death sentence could have been avoided if jurors had seen the medical evidence they hope will convince Texas’ Board of Pardons and Paroles to recommend that Nenno’s life be spared.
Nenno was convicted of the 1995 rape and murder of 7-year-old Nicole Benton near Houston. Nenno had no previous criminal record, but attorney Richard Burr says that evidence of brain damage to Nenno’s frontal lobe has only recently been linked to his exposure to neurotoxins during his four-year service in the U.S. Navy. A public health expert told Nenno’s legal team that the toxins Nenno was exposed to caused both physiological and behavioral changes that could be linked to what an expert at Nenno’s trial called a “compromised … ability to control strong … emotional drives and impulses,” which led to his murder of Benton.
Nenno has been a model inmate, often helping others on Texas’ death row. He has faced up to his crime and feels horrible regret, his attorneys say. Nenno expressed remorse for his crime in a letter to the board and Gov. Rick Perry. “During the years that I have been imprisoned, I have often thought about the devastating grief and pain I caused Nicole Benton, her family, and her friends,” he wrote. “There is no excuse nor rationale which would be sufficient to justify this heinous act of violence perpetrated by me.”
Nenno “knows that he can never put right the wrong he is responsible for,” Burr and co-counsel Christopher Tritico wrote in Nenno’s clemency petition. “Mr. Nenno comes before you asking that you allow him to live out his life in [prison]. He does not feel that he has any right to be allowed to do this. He does not expect that you will recommend it. He only hopes that you will.”
This article appears in October 24 • 2008.