Inclusion Daily Express -- Daryl Atkins' Attorneys Will Appeal Mental Retardation Verdict

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 . . .

Daryl Atkins' Attorneys Will Appeal Mental Retardation Verdict
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
August 22, 2005

YORK, VIRGINIA--The attorneys representing Daryl Renard Atkins plan to appeal a jury's determination that the 27-year-old does not have mental retardation and, therefore, can be executed.

Primary defender Joseph Migliozzi told the Daily Press that the Virginia Supreme Court is required to review Atkins' case because it involves the death penalty. The court could take up the case as early as September.

Akins' execution has been scheduled for December 2.

The question of whether Atkins has mental retardation has been more controversial than whether he was guilty of murder in the first place.

Atkins was convicted in 1999 of robbing and murdering Airman 1st Class Eric Nesbitt. Co-defendant William A. Jones testified that Atkins shot Nesbitt eight times in 1996. Jones' life was spared in exchange for his testimony against Atkins.

Atkins' case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which determined in June 2002 that executing convicts who have mental retardation is "cruel and unusual punishment" in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. The Supreme Court did not decide whether Atkins had mental retardation, nor did it tell Virginia -- or any state -- how to determine if somebody does have mental retardation.

Atkins' case was returned to the Virginia Supreme Court, which ordered the new jury to determine whether he has the intellectual disability.

That jury deliberated for 13 hours over two days before declaring on August 5 that Atkins does not have mental retardation and qualifies for the death penalty.

One legal expert told the Daily Press that the case could eventually return to the U.S. Supreme Court, because the process Virginia uses to determine mental retardation in capital cases could be considered a constitutional issue.

Related:
"Atkins' lawyers to file appeal" (Daily Press)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/05/red/0822a.htm
"Daryl Atkins v. Virginia" (Inclusion Daily Express Archives)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/laws/atkins.htm
"The Death Penalty and Mental Retardation" (Inclusion Daily Express Archives)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/laws/deathpenalty.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!