WEEK 2 EOC: Supreme courts

The case Atkins Vs. Virginia was decided on Thursday June 20 2002; in York county Virginia the case involves Daryl Reynard. Daryl was convicted of abduction, armed robbery and capital murder.   According to the psychologists that examine him, testified that he was mildly mentally retarded. The jury sentenced Atkins to death but the Virginia Supreme Court ordered a second hearing because the trial has used misleading verdict form. Later in the second sentencing the same pychologist testified, and rebutted Atkins intelligence. But the main argument wasn’t that weather he was retarded or not but weather the court had the right to placed Atkins to death. Later the case was taken to the Supreme Court were it was ruled that According to the eight amendment executions of the mentally retarded criminals are cruel and unusual punishments are prohibited. This was stated in court by supreme court  justice john Paul Steven.  Given that anti-crime legislation is far more popular than legislation protecting violent criminals, the large number of States prohibiting the execution of mentally retarded persons (and the complete absence of legislation reinstating such executions) provides powerful evidence that today society views mentally retarded offenders as categorically less culpable than the average criminal.

 “Although clinical diagnoses often serve as a threshold requirement in legal “tests” of incompetence, non-responsibility, and disability, they are almost never sufficient to establish that the legal criteria are satisfied”. http://lawreview.richmond.edu/the-challenge-of-implementing-atkins-v-virginia/

 Mental retardation is define persons frequently knowing the difference between right and wrong and are competent to stand trial, but, by definition, they have diminished capacities to understand and process information, to communicate, to abstract from mistakes and learn from experience, to engage in logical reasoning, to control impulses, and to understand others' reactions.  The testing that involves with these types of cases involves a serious of questions; concerning the individual IQ and base upon results the case can be driven to death penalties by IQ result. This seem very terrifying to me!  What if there is an error in the test themselves? What if the test was tampered with ?   “the Atkins ruling designated that each state can choose their own methods for determining retardation” http://www.salon.com/2013/10/21/scotus_to_address_use_of_iq_tests_in_death_penalty_cases/