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11th Circuit to Review Georgia's Mental Retardation Standard

By Steve Hall

"Appeals court vacates ruling on mental retardation," is the title of Bill Rankin's report in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The federal appeals court on Tuesday vacated its ruling that found unconstitutional the burden Georgia puts on capital defendants to prove they are mentally retarded -- and thus ineligible for execution. Georgia is the only state in the country that requires a defendant raising a mental retardation claim to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, the highest burden-of-proof threshold. In June, in a 2-1 decision, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta said this standard increases the risk a death-penalty defendant will erroneously be found not to be mentally retarded. This violates the Eighth Amendment's guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment, the ruling said...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on November 10, 2010 (boomark / email).