Posted on 06/20/2002 10:46:25 PM PDT by pubmom
High Court: Executing the Mentally Retarded Is Unconstitutional
June 20 — Reversing previous rulings, the Supreme Court ruled today that executing the mentally retarded constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and is therefore unconstitutional.
The court's 6-3 ruling applies to mentally retarded killers and does not address the constitutionality of capital punishment in general. The justices cited a shift in public attitude toward the practice of executing mentally retarded killers since the court ruled on the issue more than a decade ago.
In a 1989 opinion, the high court ruled it was not unconstitutional to execute the mentally retarded under the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of "cruel and unusual punishments." The justices said there was no national consensus against the practice at the time — only two states prohibited such executions.
Since then, though, another 16 states and the federal government have passed laws barring the execution of the mentally retarded, generally defined as having an IQ of 70 or lower.
"It is not so much the number of these states that is significant, but the consistency of the direction of the change," Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority.
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