Atkins v. Virginia
- Decided
- June 20, 2002
- Docket
- 00-8452
- Status
- Published
- Jurisdiction
- Federal
Cited 3,384 timesNo negative treatment found in this library
What later courts said
- recognizing that "within the world community, the imposition of the death penalty for crimes committed by mentally retarded offenders is overwhelmingly disapproved" — Roper v. Simmons (2005)
- recognizing that mitigating evidence can be a “two-edged sword” that juries might find to show future dangerousness — Cullen v. Pinholster (2011)
- holding that the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the execution of mentally retarded individuals — Commonwealth v. Steele (2008)
Each line is a later court’s own words about this case, not a summary. Read the opinion before relying on it.
How the opinion begins
Justice Stevens delivered the opinion of the Court.
Those mentally retarded persons who meet the law’s requirements for criminal responsibility should be tried and punished when they commit crimes. Because of their disabilities in areas of reasoning, judgment, and control of their impulses, however, they do not act with the level of moral culpability that characterizes the most serious adult criminal conduct. Moreover, their impairments can jeopardize the [*307] reliability and fairness of capital proceedings against mentally retarded defendants. Presumably for these reasons, in the 13 years since we decided Penry v. Lynaugh, 492 U. S. 302 (1989), the American public, legislators, scholars, and judges have deliberated over the question whether the death penalty should ever be imposed on a mentally retarded criminal. The consensus reflected in those deliberations informs our answer to the question presented by this case: whether such executions are “cruel and unusual punishments” prohibited by the Eighth Amendment to the Federal Constitution.
I
Statutes cited
Cite this
Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002)Read the full opinion
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