Alfredo Prieto has been convicted of murdering three people, raping two of them, and DNA or ballistics link him to another six homicides and two rapes. That is nine slayings in a little more than two years. Four of his victims were in Northern Virginia. He is one of the “great” unrecognized serial killers of our time. Yet a recent Supreme Court ruling has revived the prospect that he could avoid the three death sentences he currently faces, because his defense raised the possibility that he was intellectually disabled, and the news media have begun discussing Prieto as a serious candidate for post-conviction relief. Specifically, Virginia law defines “mental retardation” in part by test scores, which the Supreme Court prohibited, and Prieto had IQ test scores both above and below the state cut-off. [read the full story here]
