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Victory for Daryl Atkins

By standdown

In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional for offenders with mental retardation in the case Atkins v. Virginia.  That decision has resulted in numerous stays of execution in Texas and 11 death sentences being overturned in the state.  Until yesterday, however, Daryl Atkins had not benefited from his own case.  The commonwealth of Virginia had persisted in its argument that Atkins did not have mental retardation. The Washington Post has, "Death Sentence Commuted in Va. Case."More than five years after his case made legal history with a U.S. Supreme Court ban on executions of the mentally retarded, Daryl Atkins was spared his own long-held place on Virginia's death row when a judge commuted his sentence to life in prison Thursday...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on January 18, 2008 (boomark / email).