Texas executes death row prisoner despite mental impairment defense
The State of Texas executed death row inmate Bobby Wayne Woods by lethal injection Thursday, over the objections of lawyers who argued Woods was mentally impaired and thus could not be executed under federal law. Defense lawyers...
Supreme Court rules mental capacity hearing does not violate double jeopardy
The US Supreme Court issued opinions in two cases on Monday. In Bobby v. Bies , the Court ruled unanimously that a post-conviction hearing to determine the mental...
Bobby v. Bies, US Supreme Court, June 1, 2009 [ruling unanimously that a post-conviction hearing to determine the mental competency of a capital defendant convicted before the Court's 2002 ruling in Atkins v. Virginia, which prohibits the execution of mentally...
Supreme Court hears arguments in deportation, double jeopardy cases
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in two cases. In Nijhawan v. Holder , the Court will consider whether convictions for mail, bank,...
Supreme Court takes IDEA, Fourth Amendment, and four other cases
The US Supreme Court granted certiorari Friday in six cases. In Forest Grove School District, Petitioner v. T. A. , the Court will consider whether the Individuals with...
Federal appeals court orders hearing on death row inmate mental retardation claim
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Wednesday ordered a federal court to hold an evidentiary hearing to consider whether a man sentenced to death for murder might be mentally retarded. After Michael Wayne...
The American Bar Association death penalty assessment team has recommended a moratorium on the death penalty in Ohio, in a report released Monday that cited major flaws in the state's...
Tennessee high court allows execution of people with late-onset mental retardation
The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the state can execute a defendant who begins to exhibit symptoms comparable with mental retardation after the age of 18. Under Tennessee's criminal code , mental retardation is...
New Jersey high court shifts mental retardation burden in death penalty cases
The New Jersey Supreme Court Tuesday held that mental retardation, like insanity, is a condition to be affirmatively proved by the defense in state death penalty cases. In a 5-2 ruling , the court overturned an...
Virginia high court orders new sentencing trial for death row inmate
The Supreme Court of Virginia has ordered a new trial for death row inmate Daryl Atkins, instructing the trial court to determine whether Atkins is mentally retarded and therefore ineligible for the death penalty...
