COLUMBIANA – The defense attorneys for a Columbiana man accused of capital murder filed a request on Thursday, July 13, to prevent the imposition of the death penalty if he is convicted.

Attorneys Victor Revill and James Ransom asked the Shelby County Circuit Court to prohibit the state from sentencing 21-year-old Demarcus Lamar Means to death.

Revill and Ransom cited a psychological evaluation of Means performed by psychologist Ron Meredith as evidence that Means is “intellectually disabled.” According to Revill and Ransom, his execution would be a violation of Alabama law and the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

Means, who lists an address on Alabama 25, was arrested and charged with murder after he allegedly shot and killed 18-year-old Haleigh Danielle Green. His charge was later upgraded to capital murder.

According to the motion, Means’s intelligence level is “of the low average range.” Revill and Ransom also stated that Means has exhibited symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, moderate to severe problems with abstract or symbolic thought, depression and anxiety.

The psychological evaluation stated that Means has suffered from a head injury while playing basketball as a high school student.

“His impaired intellectual functioning, combined with ADHD and a form of dementia resulting from blunt force trauma during childhood, severely limits his ability to cognitively and intellectually deal with his surroundings,” the motion read.

In the evaluation, Meredith wrote that Means was “unable to appreciate the nature and quality or wrongfulness of his acts due to mental illness or disorder at the time of the commission of the crime.”

Means is currently being held in the St. Clair County Jail in Ashford on no bond. His next status call is set for Aug. 22.