Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing
P.O. Box 120552 . Nashville, Tennessee . 37212 . 615-329-0048 [This is no longer the correct TCASK State Office number. The number was changed to 615-463-0070 in February 2005 .]
e-mail: tcask@earthlink.net URL: www.tcask.org
Promoting Alternatives to Capital Punishment in Tennessee
Press Release: 20 June 2002
re: Statement on US Supreme Court Decision in Atkins v. Virginia
contact: Randy Tatel: 615-329-0048 [This is no longer the correct TCASK State Office number. The number was changed to 615-463-0070 in February 2005 .]
Nashville, TN: The Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing applauds today’s United States Supreme Court decision in the case of Atkins v. Virginia. The ruling reflects a growing national concern that the administration of the death penalty is unfair. The Justices affirmed a value most Americans already held—the execution of people with mental retardation must be prohibited. It simply violates the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.
"The Supreme Court has recognized what a majority of the states already acknowledge - that mentally retarded offenders are less blameworthy and therefore the death penalty is a disproportionately severe punishment," says TCASK Executive Director Randy Tatel. "People with mental retardation are more likely to be wrongfully convicted and sent to death row than other people. They are easier to bear false witness against; easier to coerce a confession from; and easier to demonize in the media. This ruling is long overdue."
Writing for the majority, Justice John Paul Stevens stated, “Mentally retarded persons frequently know the difference between right and wrong and are competent to stand trial, but, by definition, they have diminished capacities to understand and process information, to communicate, to abstract from mistakes and learn from experience, to engage in logical reasoning, to control impulses, and to understand others reactions. Their deficiencies do not warrant an exemption from criminal sanctions, but diminish their personal culpability.”
Tennessee is one of 18 death penalty states that contributed to the evolving standards of decency consensus by passing state level legislation outlawing the practice. The Tennessee Supreme Court effectively banned the practice with the Van Tran decision handed down in December of last year. In 1990 Tennessee banned the execution of the mentally retarded, but the law did not apply to people convicted and sentenced before that date. However, the Tennessee court said that executing any mentally retarded person, regardless of when they were sentenced, violates both the Tennessee Constitution and the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Today’s Atkins ruling confirms the wisdom of that decision.
The decision comes at a time when there is growing agreement among death penalty proponents and opponents alike that the capital punishment system is broken. Two pro-death penalty governors have declared moratoria on executions, more than 100 people have been exonerated from death row, and there is increasing momentum for state and federal legislation addressing flaws in the system. “Today’s Supreme Court decision is not a cure-all for a flawed system,” said Tatel. “We need a ‘time-out’ in order to study the system. The stayed executions of Philip Workman and Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman are evidence that our system is broken and fails to function in a way that guarantees fairness and equal access to justice.”
Juvenile offenders could also be affected by this ruling. The Missouri Supreme Court temporarily halted the June 5 execution of juvenile offender Christopher Simmons pending the Atkins v. Virginia ruling, arguing that the decision should apply to juveniles who, like the mentally retarded, are also considered to be a group requiring special protection in the legal system.” Given what Justice Stevens has written,” said Tatel, “the Court should also be banning the execution of kids. They, too, have a diminished capacity to act because their brains, especially in certain cognitive areas, are still developing at their age.”