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11th Circuit Ruling on Mental Retardation

By Steve Hall

"Mental retardation burden of proof in death cases unconstitutional" by Bill Rankin is the Atlanta Journal-Constitution report.The burden that Georgia places on death-penalty defendants to prove they are mentally retarded -- and thus ineligible for execution -- is unconstitutional, the federal appeals court in Atlanta ruled Friday. The court, in a 2-1 decision, said that requiring defendants to prove they are mentally retarded beyond a reasonable doubt violates the Eighth Amendment's ban against cruel and unusual punishment. It also will "result in the execution of the mentally retarded," which the U.S. Supreme Court prohibited in 2002. The decision should result in new hearings for up to 10 inmates on Georgia's death row who previously raised mental retardation claims at trial, said Brian Kammer, director of the Georgia Appellate Practice and Educational Resource Center, which handles death-row appeals...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on June 21, 2010 (boomark / email).