[Ppnews] Jury will decide whether man is smart enough to be executed

[PPnews at freedomarchives.org]

The criminal justice system in the US continues to discriminate against 
people who are mentally challenged. Even after the US Supreme Court ruled 
that it is unconstitutional to execute someone who is retarded, the 
Prosecutor in Daryl Atkins' case has produced experts who can vouch that 
the death-row inmate's IQ has increased!!

It is a sad reflection on our society that not only are we incapable of 
supporting those who are mentally challenged, but we parade them though our 
biased courts for ridiculous hearings.

We bend over backwards to prove that an inmate who has been determined to 
be mentally challenged and hence incapable of being executed, is in fact 
intelligent and hence it is OK to throw the switch.

I would like these voodoo doctors to work their magic on our beloved 
President Bush and try to elevate his IQ!!  They say the only reason he 
moved from Texas to D.C. is because in Texas they hang the mentally 
challenged!!

Kim Singh
Executive Director
Asian American Public Policy Institute

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Monday, 25 July, 2005

Jurors to decide US killer's IQ
Jury selection is under way for a unique trial in the US - to decide 
whether a man is intelligent enough to be executed.

Daryl Atkins will be put to death if the jury decides he is not retarded - 
and spared if it says he is.

Atkins' case led to the US Supreme Court in 2002 outlawing the execution of 
the mentally retarded.

But prosecutors argue his IQ has since increased, and that he can therefore 
be put to death.

"This case is going to be unique in the annals of judicial history," Judge 
Prentis Smiley told 70 potential jurors in Yorktown, Virginia.

He said Atkins "must prove he is mentally retarded by... a preponderance of 
the evidence".

If he failed to do so, another court had already decided his fate, he 
explained.

Different definitions

The trial is scheduled to last two weeks, and could hear from up to 100 
witnesses.

Atkins has twice been sentenced to death for the murder of a 21-year-old 
airforce man in 1996.

His lawyers successfully argued at the Supreme Court that executing the 
mentally retarded was unconstitutional.

But the court's ruling may not save his life.

The court left it up to individual states to define "retarded".

Virginia requires an inmate to have had an IQ of 70 or less, combined with 
poor social skills by the age of 18.

Atkins, 27, was not tested as a youth but he scored 59 in 1998, and 76 more 
recently.

The BBC's Oliver Conway, in Washington, says the jury must decide whether 
that improvement in IQ shows he is fit to be executed, or is merely the 
result of the mental stimulation gained from following his case.
The case is the latest battleground for those arguing for and against 
state-sanctioned executions in America


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Virginia court to review killer's intelligence level
If man is deemed to be retarded, then he would not be executed
BY ANDREW PETKOFSKY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Sunday, July 24, 2005

The trial of a convicted murderer in York County Circuit Court this week 
will focus not on his guilt or innocence but on his intelligence level.

Daryl Renard Atkins was convicted three years ago and sentenced to death in 
the 1996 murder of Airman 1st Class Eric Michael Nesbitt, a 21-year-old 
stationed at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton. His body was found in York.

Atkins' lawyers appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court that he should not be 
executed because he is retarded.

The case resulted in the high court's ruling that it is unconstitutional to 
execute someone who is retarded. Although that ruling had a national impact 
affecting dozens of death-row inmates, the justices did not make a final 
determination about whether Atkins could be executed.

Instead, the court sent the case back for the Virginia court to determine 
whether Atkins, now 27, is retarded. That issue was disputed and not 
resolved during the murder trial.

The question has turned out to be so complex that the trial could not start 
when first scheduled in early February because at least one expert witness 
for the prosecution had not come to a conclusion by the trial's opening -- 
even though the date had been set for months.

Before Judge Prentis Smiley Jr. postponed the trial in February, lawyers 
discussed the complexities of evaluating and scoring IQ tests that have 
been administered by experts for both sides.

Virginia law defines mental retardation as having an IQ of 70 or less, but 
it also takes into consideration social skills and self-reliance level.

Atkins has scored as low as 59 on IQ tests since his arrest. But more 
recently he has been measured at 76 in a test given by a prosecution 
expert, according to testimony in February.

But Virginia law defines retardation as a disability originating before age 
18 and characterized by significantly below-average intelligence and 
significant limitation in adaptive mental, social and practical skills for 
daily living.

Atkins never took an IQ test before he was 18, so lawyers and the judge 
said in February that the trial must include testimony about the 
defendant's living skills in the years before the murder.

The outcome will not alter Atkins' conviction but could mean the difference 
between death or a life sentence.

Atkins and a co-defendant were charged with abducting Nesbitt at a 
convenience store, robbing him and fatally shooting him. Prosecutors said 
Atkins was the triggerman, and they reached a plea bargain with the 
co-defendant, who testified against Atkins.

The co-defendant, William Jones, is serving a life sentence.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin tomorrow, and the trial is expected to 
last up to two weeks.



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