U.S. Supreme Court Will Hear Virginia Case to
Decide Constitutionality of Executing Inmates with Mental Retardation
The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed the case of North Carolina death
row inmate Ernest McCarver, which they had taken to decide the issue of
whether it is cruel and unusual to execute inmates with mental retardation.Instead, the Court will hear the case of Daryl Atkins, a
Virginia death row inmate with mental retardation.After the Justices had agreed to review McCarver's case, North
Carolina passed a bill prohibiting the execution of the mentally retarded,
rendering McCarver's case moot.
In 1989, the Supreme Court held that executing persons with mental
retardation was not a violation of the Eighth Amendment because a "national
consensus" had not developed against executing those with mental
retardation.At the time,
only two states prohibited such executions.Since then, 16 more states and the federal government have enacted
laws prohibiting the execution of the mentally retarded.
- September 25
Court Reviews Executing Mentally
By GINA
HOLLAND
WASHINGTON
- The Supreme Court has
reaffirmed its intention to decide if mentally retarded killers should be
spared the death penalty, choosing a new case to review.
As state leaders debate the morality of the
practice, the court will consider early next year if it is constitutional.
The court on Tuesday substituted a moot North
Carolina inmate's case with one from Virginia. The court's first choice
had been the appeal of Ernest McCarver, convicted of killing a cafeteria
worker. North Carolina enacted a ban on such executions last month.
``Obviously they do want to take a stand on this
issue, one way or the other,'' said Paula Bernstein, spokeswoman for the
Death Penalty Information Center.
The court will review the case of Daryl Atkins,
who was 18 when he was accused of murdering an airman to get money for
beer. Justices will revisit the question of whether it is cruel and
unusual punishment to execute a person with mental retardation.
Atkins has an IQ of 59, the court was told.
People who test 70 or below are generally considered mentally retarded. A
psychologist who testified for the state said that Atkins used
sophisticated words and was able to identify the last two presidents as
well as Virginia's governor.
The victim in the Atkins case, 21-year-old Eric
Nesbitt, was kidnapped in 1996 outside a convenience store and forced to
withdraw money from an automatic teller machine. Atkins and an accomplice
were accused of taking Nesbitt to a deserted field and shooting him eight
times. Nesbitt was stationed at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Va.
Pro-death penalty groups said they would oppose
Atkins' case.
``Our participation in this case will be to help
assure that cold-blooded murderers are not able to avoid the punishment
they have earned with an unsupported claim that they suffer a mental
deficiency,'' said Kent Scheidegger, legal director for the Criminal
Justice Legal Foundation.
In 1989, the year the Supreme Court ruled that
the Constitution allowed the execution of killers with mental retardation,
only two states - Georgia and Maryland - and the federal government banned
those executions. Now 18 states forbid them.
Steven Hawkins, executive director of the
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said state policy makers
have been giving the issue more attention and the court may respond to
that trend.
Virginia prosecutors said that although Atkins
mentioned his claim that he is mentally retarded in his appeal to the
state Supreme Court, he did not argue that it was grounds to overturn his
death sentence.
Atkins revised his U.S. Supreme Court (news -
web sites) appeal after justices announced in March that they would review
the McCarver case.
President Bush (news - web sites) has said he
opposes executing the retarded.
``We should never execute anybody who is
retarded,'' Bush said in June. ``And our court system protects people who
don't understand the nature of the crime they committed.''
That same month, his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb
Bush, signed a ban into law for Florida while Bush's successor in Texas,
Gov. Rick Perry, vetoed a similar proposal.
The Death Penalty Information Center said that
Texas has executed six retarded defendants since 1982, two of them while
President Bush was governor.
Prosecutors have disputed that, contending that
the two men put to death during Bush's years as governor both tested
higher on some IQ tests.
The cases are McCarver v.
North Carolina, 00-8727, and Atkins v. Virginia, 00-8452.
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