States’ Response after Supreme Court Ruling

The Supreme Court Case of Atkin v. Virginia leaves State that ability to interpret the intellectually disabled. The ruling of Atkin v. Virginia ruled the death penalty for the intellectually disabled is unconstitutional because it is “cruel and unusual punishment” as written in the 8th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Leaving states with the ability to practice their own interpretation of how to identify the intellectually disabled varies from state to state. Southern states have a record of toughness as suggest with the high number of executions year to year. Texas, Georgia, Virginia, and Florida each have different methods of conducting whether a defendant is intellectually disabled. The methods of each state determine the effectiveness to determine if the defendant is in fact intellectually disabled. The research I propose will break down the process each state uses when determining the intellectually disabled and determine its effectiveness to the number of executions year to year. The States methods have similar characteristics but lack few procedures that help defendant bring in more evidence. States can process how they determine the intellectual disabled; therefore, each state procedure varies. The research will allow the reader to conclude on how they choose to view the intellectually disabled procedure. The reader will be able to formulate their own opinion rather than the research moving them to one direction. The ruling of Atkin v. Virginia allowed States to determine the procedure to determining the Intellectually disable however, readers could conclude different ideas such as whether there should be a procedure for all states to follow.