"Ga. lawmakers study ‘intellectually disabled’ death penalty provisions," is the length report filed by Kate Brumback of Associated Press. It's via the Marietta Daily Journal.
Georgia state lawmakers held a hearing Thursday to gather input from the public on whether changes should be made to a law that requires death penalty defendants to prove beyond a reasonable doubt they are intellectually disabled to be spared execution on those grounds.
Georgia became the first state, in 1988, to ban the execution of the intellectually disabled, and the U.S. Supreme court in 2002 ruled that the execution of intellectually disabled offenders is unconstitutional. But Georgia’s beyond-a-reasonable-doubt burden of proof of that disability is the strictest in the nation. Other states that impose the death penalty have a lower threshold.
Defense attorneys and advocates for the intellectually disabled told the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee that the standard is too high and will likely result in the execution of some intellectually disabled death row inmates. Prosecutors said they aren’t necessarily opposed to changing the law but said any changes could have unintended consequences.
The fact that Georgia is the only state with such a strict standard means it merits examination, said Rep. Rich Golick, a Republican from Smyrna who chairs the committee. The hearing was a good first step toward learning the facts and issues surrounding a possible change, he said after the meeting, adding that more research and consideration are needed before any decision can be made on possible legislation.
Jack Martin, with the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, told the committee he was involved 25 years ago in the drafting of the language of the law at issue. The change was made quickly in the waning days of a legislative session and was not intended to require that intellectual disability had to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, he said.
“It was sloppy draftsmanship, pure and simple,” he said.
Georgia Public Broadcasting posts, "Death Penalty And Mental Disability," by Jeanne Bonner.
Georgia’s uniquely high judicial standard for determining if a defendant is mentally disabled took center stage at a hearing Thursday at the state Capitol. The review comes as the state’s high court considers an appeal by death row inmate, Warren Lee Hill, whom lawyers say more than meets the standard but is nonetheless facing execution.
Georgia is the only state that requires death penalty defendants to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that they are mentally disabled. Most states use a lower standard that employs the phrase “a preponderance of evidence.”
Jack Martin is with the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
He says proving a client’s disability beyond any doubt is why the state has most likely executed mentally disabled people.
“We have to admit that the policy of this burden of proof, from a long history now, means we’re saying, ‘We’re okay with executing a few mentally retarded people,’,” he told lawmakers. “I just don’t think that’s right. And I don’t think that’s what we really believe.”
But Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter says juries don’t decide the issue willy-nilly.
“The Georgia system allows for a broad spectrum of evidence, which includes expert opinion, lay witnesses, it includes work history, in the case of Warren Hill, his military history,” he said.
He said the statute has been litigated extensively, and upheld all the way up to the high court.
And he added that if Georgia decides to change the standard, it won’t be able to do so narrowly.
Earlier coverage of the Georgia legislative hearing begins at the link.
As I often point out, mental retardation is now generally referred to as a developmental or intellectual disability. Because it has a specific meaning with respect to capital cases, I continue to use the older term on the website. More on Atkins v. Virginia, the Supreme Court's 2002 ruling banning the execution of those with mental retardation, is via Oyez.
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