FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) - A Virginia judge has appointed two brain experts to evaluate a man facing the death penalty in the slaying of a teenage girl last year.
The appointment Thursday of a neuropsychologist and neurotoxicologist to evaluate 23-year-old Darwin Martinez-Torres of Sterling came despite the objections of a prosecutor who called the request "neuro-witchcraft."
Martinez-Torres is facing charges including capital murder and rape in the June killing of Nabra Hassanen of Reston.
Hassanen was attacked in the pre-dawn hours walking with a group of friends to Ramadan services at her mosque.
Defense lawyers say a key part of their case will be Martinez-Torres' limited mental ability. They say he was exposed to toxins like mercury growing up in El Salvador, and that executing a man of with intellectual disabilities would be unconstitutional.
