Death Penalty for the Mentally Retarded

On March 26th , The U. S Supreme Court announced that it would take into consideration the increasing national consensus against capital punishment for mentally retarded killers. The case will be argued next fall, and the Supreme Court will decided whether such punishment for mentally retarded killers is "cruel and unconstitutional" in violation of the Eight Amendment. The court will assess whether execution of the mentally retarded violates American standards of decency. This case, could produce the court's most important ruling on the death penalty in years, according to Linda Greenhouse (1).

Since the Supreme Court last considered this question, twelve years ago, 11 states have rejected the death penalty for retarded killers. When taking into account the states without capital punishment, half the states do not execute mentally retarded killers.

According to Linda Greenhouse (1), currently, 10% of the death row inmates have an IQ of less than 70, which deems them mentally retarded. In the fall, to decide the issue, the Supreme Court, will hear an appeal by a death row inmate in NC, Ernest P. McCarver, whose IQ is 67. McCarver was issued a stay, hours before his execution. He was sentenced to death, after the 1987 theft and murder of a coworker in Concord, NC. Mr. McCarver, who was 26 at the time of the murder, was found to function intellectually as a 10-12 year old.

The death penalty, itself, has been an issue of many heated debates in this country.