Attorneys for death-row inmate John Lotter are taking a new position, alleging he is ineligible for the death penalty because he functions intellectually as a child.
It's the latest legal maneuvering by the man convicted in a triple murder that inspired the 1999 movie "Boys Don't Cry."
Lotter, 46, has maintained his innocence in the Dec. 31, 1993, killings at a Humboldt farmhouse, despite being convicted of three counts of first-degree murder. He's spent the past 22 years on death row pending appeals.
Late last week, Rebecca Woodman of the Death Penalty Litigation Clinic in Kansas City, Missouri, let a Nebraska federal judge know about a post-conviction motion filed in Richardson County alleging Lotter is an "intellectually disabled person."
In a 60-page motion, she and two other attorneys representing Lotter raised numerous arguments, the newest among them challenging that Lotter is ineligible for the death penalty given recent IQ testing.
The attorneys cited a landmark 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision forbidding the execution of people with intellectual disabilities and a later decision by the court in 2014 rejecting a strict IQ cutoff rule in Florida.
In Nebraska, by law, an IQ of 70 or below is presumptive evidence of an intellectual disability.
According to the court filing last week, Dr. Ricardo Weinstein, a clinical and forensic neuropsychologist from Encinitas, California, evaluated Lotter last year and determined he scored a 67 for general intellectual ability on the Woodcock-Johnson test, the equivalent IQ of an average 8-year-old.
In 1981, at the age of 10, Lotter scored a 76, which adjusts to a 73 under today's scoring, according to the expert.
Attorney Tim Noerrlinger said Weinstein also reviewed trial records and school records showing Lotter was in special-education classes, and he interviewed Lotter's mother, foster mother, a psychiatrist who worked with Lotter as a child and others before determining that Lotter had significant adaptive deficits.
It's Weinstein's opinion that Lotter qualifies for the diagnosis of intellectual developmental disability.
But that ultimately will be a decision for the court.
Lotter's attorneys pointed to the Florida decision, where the Supreme Court found that professionals have long agreed an IQ test score should be read not as a single number but as a range, which can fluctuate for several reasons.
If Richardson County District Judge Vicky Johnson grants an evidentiary hearing to consider the issue or others raised by Lotter's attorneys, the state would be allowed to seek its own experts.
Lotter was sentenced to death for his role in the 1993 killings of Brandon Teena and two witnesses, Lisa Lambert and Philip DeVine. Thomas Nissen is serving life sentences for the part he played in the crime.
Nebraska's death row inmates
Jose Sandoval

Jose Sandoval, Jan. 31, 2005, Madison County. Sandoval was convicted with Jorge Galindo and Erick Vela of shooting and killing Lisa Bryant, 29, Lola Elwood, 43, Samuel Sun, 50, all Norfolk, Jo Mausbach, 42, Humphrey, and Evonne Tuttle, 37, of Stanton, in a botched attempted bank robbery.
Patrick Schroeder

* Patrick Schroeder, Aug. 31, 2006, Johnson County. Schroeder was convicted of strangling his cellmate, Terry Berry, at Tecumseh State Correctional Institution in April 2017. At the time, Schroeder was serving a life sentence for beating Pawnee City farmer Kenny Albers to death and dumping his body in a well in 2006.
Nikko Jenkins

* Nikko Jenkins, May 30, 2017, Douglas County. Eleven days after his release from prison, where he had been for 10 years for two carjackings, Jenkins shot and killed Juan Uribe-Pena and Jorge Cajiga-Ruizon on Aug. 11, 2013. Eight days later, Jenkins killed Curtis Bradford, a one-time prison acquaintance. Then, on Aug. 21, he pulled Andrea Kruger from her SUV as she drove home from work and shot her four times before speeding off in her vehicle.
John Lotter

* John L. Lotter, Feb. 21, 1996, Richardson County. Lotter and Marvin Nissen were convicted of killing Teena Brandon, 21, of Lincoln, a transgender male. They killed Brandon in 1993 to silence him after he told police they had raped him. They also killed Lisa Lambert, 24, and Phillip DeVine, 22, who lived in the same house as Brandon and witnessed the killing. Lotter has maintained his innocence.
Raymond Mata

* Raymond Mata, June 1, 2000, Scotts Bluff. Mata was convicted of killing and dismembering 3-year-old Adam Gomez, his former girlfriend’s son, in 1999. Prosecutors said Mata fed parts of the boy's body to a dog, and kept some of his remains in the home to intimidate the boy’s mother.
Arthur Gales

* Arthur L. Gales, Nov. 6, 2001, Douglas County. Gales was convicted of attempted murder in the severe beating of Judy Chandler, and of raping and murdering her 13-year-old daughter, Latara Chandler, by strangling her, and killing her 7-year-old son Tramar by drowning and strangling him. He killed them because he knew they could identify him as being with their mother that day.
Jorge Galindo

* Jorge Galindo, Nov. 10, 2004, Madison County. Convicted with Jose Sandoval and Erick F. Vela for shooting and killing Lisa Bryant, 29, Lola Elwood, 43, Samuel Sun, 50, all Norfolk, Jo Mausbach, 42, Humphrey, and Evonne Tuttle, 37, of Stanton, in a botched attempted bank robbery.
Erick Vela

* Erick F. Vela, 34, Jan. 12, 2007, Madison County. Convicted with Jose Sandoval and Jorge Galindo for shooting and killing Lisa Bryant, 29, Lola Elwood, 43, Samuel Sun, 50, all Norfolk, Jo Mausbach, 42, Humphrey, and Evonne Tuttle, 37, of Stanton, in a botched attempted bank robbery.
Jeffrey Hessler

* Jeffrey Hessler, May 18, 2005, Scotts Bluff County. In 2003, Hessler kidnapped, raped and murdered 15-year-old newspaper carrier Heather Guerrero.
Roy Ellis

* Roy L. Ellis, Feb. 6, 2009, Douglas County. Ellis abducted, sexually assaulted and killed 12-year-old Amber Harris, who died of at least two blows to the head. Ellis has said he used a hammer, and he may also have strangled her.
Marco Torres

* Marco E. Torres, Jan. 29, 2010, Hall County. In 2007, he tortured and killed Edward Hall, 60, binding him with an electrical cord, gagging him with a bathrobe belt and shooting him three times. He then shot and killed Timothy Donohue, 48, who lived in a room upstairs in Hall's home. The men were killed to conceal a robbery.
Anthony Garcia

Anthony Garcia, a former doctor convicted of killing four people connected to Creighton Medical Center, was sentenced to death Sept. 14, 2017.
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On Twitter @LJSpilger.