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U.S. Supreme Court examines bright-line mental disability rule
In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that executing a mentally disabled (formerly referred to as mentally retarded) person violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban against cruel and unusual punishment. In a case known as Atkins v. Virginia, the Supreme Court held that “death is not a suitable punishment for a mentally retarded criminal.” The Atkins opinion also contains a loophole that renders it virtually meaningless in many cases—in the Court’s words “we leave to the State[s] the task of developing appropriate ways to enforce the constitutional restriction upon its execution of sentences.”…Read More
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