Death Penalty Ban for Persons with Mental Retardation

ISSUE: S.B.628 would implement the U.S. Supreme Court vs Atkins decision, which prohibits the death penalty for persons with mental retardation. It includes an acceptable definition of mental retardation and includes a pre-trial procedure to determine the issue of mental retardation

Background: In 2002, the United States Supreme Court, in Atkins v. Virginia, found that the execution of persons with mental retardation violated the U.S. Constitutions Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. It left it to each state to establish how its judicial system will implement Atkins.

Intellectual Disability

It is unconstitutional to impose the death penalty upon individuals with intellectual disability. But poor legal representation and onerous evidentiary requirements still result in death sentences and executions of intellectually disabled defendants.