11.   Seventeen states enacted laws granting inmates access to post-conviction DNA testing, while another five states banned the execution of mentally retarded inmates.

12.   Sponsors of the Texas legislation say the state has executed six mentally retarded inmates in recent years, and seven more are awaiting execution.

13.   The ruling also came within days of another landmark decision that abolished executions of mentally retarded inmates.

14.   The state legislature is considering a ban on the execution of mentally retarded inmates and offering juries the option of sentencing murderers to life without parole.

15.   There are no mentally retarded inmates on federal death row, and no juvenile offenders.

16.   Penry would not be the first mentally retarded inmate executed.

17.   But, he says, Texas does not execute mentally retarded inmates, despite what others say.

18.   He supports the death penalty, but says he would have signed a bill Perry vetoed banning the execution of mentally retarded inmates.

19.   House sponsor Rep. Juan Hinojosa, a Democrat, said seven mentally retarded inmates currently are on death row in Texas.

20.   Last March, an officer was found liable in the beating of a mentally retarded inmate with a frying pan.