DPIC Podcast: Discussions With DPIC
Intellectual Disability and the Death Penalty, With Law Professor John Blume
Overview
While stopping short of abolishing the death penalty, the U.S. Supreme Court has taken measures to limit its applicability so that it is used primarily in cases where the defendant had the most culpability. People with intellectual disability are not in that group. Occasionally, states, too, determined that the death penalty could be too harsh as applied to some defendants, and many passed laws exempting people with limited intellectual ability from the death penalty.
The mental health community has provided clear criteria for a finding of intellectual disability: significant limitation in intellectual ability and adaptive behavior, manifesting itself prior to the age of 18.
Although the question of a national ban on the use of capital punishment for those with intellectual disability was rejected by the Supreme Court in 1989 because so few states had taken action on their own, the issue re-emerged in 2002 with a new consensus. Thirty states had either ended the use of the death penalty entirely, or at least for those with intellectual disabilities. In Atkins v. Virginia, the Court held that the nation’s standards of decency had evolved to the point where no such executions should occur. It also concluded that there was little if any deterrent or retributive effect from executing such defendants.
At Issue
The Atkins case was a seminal moment in the history of the death penalty, not only because it spared the lives of a vulnerable class of defendants, but it also provided a blueprint for achieving other limitations on the practice, or even for eliminating it altogether. Even after the Court’s decision in 2002, some states continued to use arcane practices in the determination of intellectual disability, so further supervision has been required.
What DPIC Offers
DPIC traces the history of this important ruling, noting the legislative efforts in various states and the pivotal cases that brought this issue to the fore. It provides access to some of the research regarding how many defendants with intellectual disability have been removed from death row and how states apply this ruling at differing times during the process leading up to sentencing.
News & Developments
News
Apr 01, 2024
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Removes Henderson County Man from Death Row Citing Intellectual Disability
On March 27, 2024, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) resentenced death row prisoner Randall Mays to life in prison without the possibility of parole after an expert for the state conceded that the evidence presented by Mr. Mays’ attorneys indicates he is intellectually disabled, and thus ineligible for the death penalty. Originally sentenced to death in 2008 for the murder of two Henderson County, Texas, sheriff’s deputies, Mr. Mays’ attorneys have long argued that he should be…
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Mar 20, 2024
Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole Denies Clemency for Willie Pye, Scheduled for March 20 Execution, Amid Pending Secrecy and Equal Protection Lawsuits
On March 19, 2024, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole denied clemency for Willie Pye (pictured), who is scheduled to be executed on March 20, despite arguments that he has an intellectual disability and is therefore ineligible for execution, per Georgia state law and U.S. Supreme Court precedent. Convicted in 1996 for the 1993 murder of his ex-girlfriend, Alicia Yarbrough, Mr. Pye has spent the last 28 years on Georgia’s death row. Mr. Pye’s case has also generated public concern due to…
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Mar 07, 2024
Georgia Sets March 20 Execution Date for Willie Pye Despite Strong Evidence of Intellectual Disability and Previous Finding of Ineffective Representation by Attorney with History of Racial Bias
The Georgia Attorney General has announced that Willie James Pye, who previously had his death sentence reversed due to his attorney’s failure to investigate his background, only to see the death sentence reinstated on appeal, is set to be executed on March 20. Mr. Pye’s court-appointed trial attorney, Johnny Mostiler, has been accused of ineffective representation or racial bias in at least four cases involving Black defendants and reportedly called one of his own clients a “little n****r.”…
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Jan 23, 2024
United States Supreme Court Asked to Consider Another Case of Racially Biased Prosecutorial Jury Strikes
On December 18, 2023, attorneys for Warren King, an intellectually disabled black man sentenced to death in Georgia in 1998, filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the United States Supreme Court, asking the Court to review the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling denying Mr. King relief. The petition states that “abundant evidence demonstrates that the prosecutor discriminated against Black and female jurors in selecting [Mr.] King’s jury,” which violates the Equal Protection…
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Aug 31, 2023
Court Ruling Makes Formerly Death-Sentenced Pervis Payne Eligible for Parole in Four Years
On August 30, 2023, the Tennessee Criminal Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s ruling that formerly death-sentenced prisoner Pervis Payne can serve his two life sentences concurrently, making him eligible to apply for parole in less than four years. Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Paula Skahan resentenced Mr. Payne in 2022 to two life sentences with the possibility of parole after prosecutors conceded that they could not disprove Mr. Payne’s claim that he is intellectually disabled…
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