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| Inmate Deemed Retarded Still on Death Row |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 01/05/2004 |
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The Virginia inmate whose case persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court to bar the execution of mentally retarded killers remains on death row more than a year later, and prosecutors are determined to see him die. Daryl Renard Atkins, who has been reported to have an IQ of 59, might not even benefit from the landmark ruling that bears his name. Atkins must still must prove in state court that he is retarded before he can leave death row and get a life sentence. Prosecutor Eileen M. Addison said she will make that as difficult as possible. ``They have an expert who believes he is retarded and we have an expert who says he's not,'' Addison said. A jury will decide the question in a proceeding set to begin on March 29. While the high court's ruling in June 2002 protected the severely mentally retarded, it provided little guidance for the far greater number of inmates like Atkins who are borderline cases. ``Virtually every mentally retarded person who has enough capacity to get in serious legal trouble is going to be at the upper end'' of the IQ scale, said David Bruck with the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel Project in South Carolina. While noting that 1 percent to 3 percent of the population could be considered retarded, the high court left it to states to determine which of the 3,504 death row inmates in America fall into that category. Most states have followed nationally accepted guidelines that define retardation as significantly below-average intellect combined with low ``adaptive'' skills at such things as communicating and taking care of oneself. But when drawing the line between inmates with low intelligence and those who are retarded, states have disagreed, making it easier to get off death row in some states and harder in others. It will probably take years, maybe decades, of litigation before some kind of national standard is developed and the criminal justice system agrees on what kinds of records inmates would have to produce and what kind of tests they would have to undergo, Richard Bonnie, director of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. Atkins, 26, was sentenced to death for shooting a Langley Air Force Base enlisted man for beer money in 1996. Atkins' accomplice, William A. Jones, testified against him and received a life sentence. After hearing the Atkins case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutionally cruel to execute the mentally retarded. |
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