Free Republic

YORKTOWN, Va. - A jury concluded Friday that a death row inmate whose case led to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling is not mentally retarded, clearing the way for his execution later this year. Jurors deliberated 13 hours over two days before finding Daryl Atkins not to be mentally retarded. The Supreme Court ruled in Atkins' case three years ago that executing the mentally retarded is unconstitutional. The court, however, left it up to states to determine whether inmates are retarded. If the jury had deemed Atkins retarded, he would have been spared execution and instead sentenced to life...

YORKTOWN, Va. -- Is Daryl Atkins mentally retarded? That question will be the sole focus of a trial set to begin this week, and the answer will determine whether he lives or dies. Atkins, 27, is the Virginia inmate whose case led the U.S. Supreme Court three years ago to bar execution of the mentally retarded as unconstitutionally cruel. Yet he has remained on death row for the 1996 robbery and murder of an Air Force enlisted man. While the high court's ruling protected the severely mentally retarded, it provided little guidance for the far greater number of inmates, like...

February 6, 2005 Inmate's Rising I.Q. Score Could Mean His Death By ADAM LIPTAK ORKTOWN, Va., Feb. 3 - Three years ago, in the case of a Virginia man named Daryl R. Atkins, the United States Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to execute the mentally retarded. But Mr. Atkins's recent test scores could eliminate him from that group.His scores have shot up, a defense expert said, thanks to the mental workout his participation in years of litigation gave him. The Supreme Court, which did not decide whether Mr. Atkins was retarded, noted that he scored 59 on...