Atkins V. Virginia Summary

The Atkins v. Virginia court case was based on Daryl Renard Atkins whom was convicted for abduction, armed robbery and capital murder. This court case was argued on February 20th 2002 and decided on June 20th 2002. In this court case, the main issue was deciding whether or not it was acceptable to give the death penalty to a mentally unstable person, or if that was violating the Eighth amendment. Atkins IQ score was told to be of 59 at the time of his conviction. Petitioner is Daryl Renard Atkins and the respondent is Virginia. The advocates that were involved in the case is James W. Ellis who argued the case of the petitioner and Pamela A. Rumpz who argued the case of the respondent. Justice Steven was the one who delivered the decision of the Rehnquist Court deciding Atkins fate.
The Constitutional issues involved would mainly be the eighth amendment. The constitution was used in this case: Atkins v. Virginia, specifically the eighth amendment states, “excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted”. The defense using the section of the 8th amendment that pertained to “cruel and unusual punishments”, it was …show more content…
They made the decision that the execution of mentally retarded people or an intellectually disabled, ruling that it constitute a “cruel and unusual punishment” prohibited by the Eighth amendment. However the court, left to the people to determine the definition of mental retardation. This decision affected over 300 mentally retarded on the death row inmates in about 20 states. The Court, specifically Justice Stevens, reasoned that, “Construing and applying the Eighth Amendment in the light of our ‘evolving standards of decency,’ we therefore conclude that such punishment is excessive and that The Constitution ‘places a substantive restriction on the State’s power to take the life’ of a mentally retarded