Execution of the Mentally Retarded*

*controversial

Wooh now. Hold up, what the fuck? Over a decade ago, in Atkins v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to execute the mentally retarded. Yet, there are several inmates on death row who have diagnosed with mental retardation and are still set to be executed. First off, this violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishments. Who are we to put someone down for having a disability for which they cannot control their actions, the answer isn't execution, it's intense care and rehabilitation. For everyone to be equal, everyone must be treated unequal, meaning there are people at there who have different disabilities who commit crimes but we should hold the crime against them harshly, we have to take in to account that they have a problem that cause them to do the crime and that being held in a detention center or psychiatric hospital is equal enough punishment because they are being confined and being helped treated for their disability. Being mentally retarded means that a person not only has substandard intellectual functioning but also significant limitations in adaptive skills such as communication, self-care, and self-direction. There is a difference between mentally retarded and mentally insane, and condemning a man/woman to death for something they can't control themselves is immoral. And even though the Supreme Court ruled that the execution of the mentally retarded was unconstitutional after the case of Atkins v. Virginia in 2002, people still continue to do it. The "relationship between mental retardation and the penological purposes served by the death penalty" justifies a conclusion that executing the mentally retarded is cruel and unusual punishment that the Eighth Amendment should forbid. In other words, unless it can be shown that executing the mentally retarded promotes the goals of retribution and deterrence, doing so is nothing more than "purposeless and needless imposition of pain and suffering", making the death penalty cruel and unusual in these cases. The execution of the mentally retarded is immoral, unjust, unconstitutional and needs to be stopped.

- G.