Inclusion Daily Express -- State High Court Rules Jurors Can Know Of Atkins' Death Sentence When Deciding Mental Retardation

Inclusion Daily Express Logo

International Disability Rights News Service
Click here for today's headlines

Keeping advocates informed, inspired and connected since 1999.
Daily or Weekly delivery . . .
Purchase this story for your website or newsletter . . .

State High Court Rules Jurors Can Know Of Atkins' Death Sentence When Deciding Mental Retardation
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
February 3, 2005

NORFOLK, VIRGINIA--The Virginia Supreme Court on Wednesday denied Daryl Renard Atkins' request that jurors who will decide whether he has mental retardation -- and therefore will be spared the death penalty -- not be told he has been convicted of capital murder.

The court also denied his defense attorney's request to delay the hearing scheduled to begin Monday in York County Circuit Court.

Atkins attorneys had argued that telling the jury about his conviction and death sentence would influence their decision about his abilities. Prosecutors have claimed that Atkins was able to plan and mastermind the kidnapping and murder of a U.S. Airman.

Atkins' case was the one the U.S. Supreme Court used in 2002 to decide that executing convicts that have mental retardation is "cruel and unusual punishment" under the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. The Supreme Court did not decide whether Atkins has mental retardation, nor did it tell Virginia -- or any state -- how to determine if somebody has mental retardation.

If jurors decide he has mental retardation, his sentence will be changed to life in prison. Otherwise he will stay on death row to face execution.

Atkins was 18 in 1996 when he and William A. Jones kidnapped U.S. Airman Nesbitt outside a convenience store, forced him to withdraw money from a cash machine, then shot him to death. Jones pleaded guilty and testified against Atkins. He received a sentence of life in prison while Atkins got the death penalty. That conviction still stands.

The Virginia Supreme Court last year said the jury should use the 2003 General Assembly's definition of mental retardation as "a disability originating before the age of 18 characterized concurrently by . . . significantly subaverage intellectual functioning" and "significant limitations in . . . conceptual, social and practical adaptive skills."

Many disability service systems use an IQ score of 70 or below or a functional assessment to indicate mental retardation, measured before the person is an adult.

Atkins' defenders say he has an IQ of 59. Prosecutors said Thursday that their expert tested Atkins at an IQ of 74.

Dozens of former death row inmates across the country have been given sentences of life in prison under what are being called "Atkins pleas" since June 2002.

Related:
"Daryl Atkins v. Virginia" (Inclusion Daily Express Archives)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/laws/atkins.htm

Click here for top of this page

Purchase this story for your website or newsletter . . .

Here's what subscribers say about Inclusion Daily Express. . .

Get your news here!