---
title: 'The Daryl Atkins Case: Continuing Challenges to Intellectual Disability Determinations'
description: 'Daryl Atkins’s constitutional challenge resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court exempting people with intellectual disabilities from the death penalty. Despite…'
canonical: 'https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/stories/the-daryl-atkins-case-continuing-challenges-to-intellectual-disability-determinations'
section: stories
date: '2008-12-31T16:29:00-05:00'
updated: '2025-03-14T14:57:46-04:00'
source: 'Death Penalty Information Center'
---

! Daryl Atkins's constitutional challenge resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court exempting people with intellectual disabilities from the death penalty. Despite this groundbreaking ruling, Virginia courts were unwilling to recognize his intellectual disability. Below is a timeline of events in *Atkins*. The timeline uses the term used for intellectual disability at the time of the events, "mental retardation."

2002
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The U.S. Supreme Court decided *Atkins v. Virginia*, ruling that people with intellectual disabilities cannot be sentenced to death. Despite the ruling, the State of Virginia did not immediately reduce Daryl Atkins' death sentence.

2005
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On August 5, Daryl Atkins was [found to be not mentally retarded](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/virginia-insists-on-execution-even-in-close-case-of-mental-retardation) by a jury in Yorktown, Virginia. The state set an execution date of December 2, though his attorneys vowed to appeal the ruling.

2006  

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The Virginia Supreme Court unanimously [overturned a trial court's determination](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/virginia-supreme-court-unanimously-orders-new-mental-retardation-hearing-for-daryl-atkins) that Daryl Atkins was not mentally retarded and that he was eligible for the death penalty.

2008
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Atkins' death sentence [was reduced to life without parole](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/prosecutorial-misconduct-leads-to-life-sentence-for-daryl-atkins) after a Virginia judge heard that evidence had been withheld from his trial attorneys. At a hearing on Atkins' mental retardation, it was revealed that prosecutors coaxed and coached Jones when he was making his statement against Atkins.