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Geocities
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Executing the
Mentally retarded/Mentally ill | List of Persons executed with MR/MI
since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 |
In Penry v. Lynaugh, the Supreme court holds that executing mentally retarded persons does not violate the Eighth Amendment.
"I like it the way it is." Comment by Governor George W. Bush of Texas at the time that a law prohibiting execution of the mentally disadvantaged was defeated. This man is now the President of the United States.
The United States is the only democratic society in the world that executes the mentally retarded/mentally ill. Should the "Greatest Nation" in the world apply it's most extreme punishment against someone who can't fully understand it?
The execution of the insane - someone who does not understand the reason for, or reality of his or her punishment - violates the US Constitution, it also violates the UN Economic and Social Council resolution of May 25, 1984.
Atkins vs Virginia, In June of 2002 The Supreme Court abolished the execution of mentally retarded offenders, imposing one of the most significant restrictions on who could be given the death penalty since the court permitted states to resume capital punishment in 1976.
Death Penalty Information Center. Human Rights Watch, another anti-death penalty group, says there are 200 to 300 retarded inmates among the death row population of more than 3,700 convicted murderers.
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