Death Sentence for Man With Intellectual Disability

Although the U.S Supreme Court has ruled that people with intellectual disabilities should not be executed for their crimes, the state of Georgia is moving ahead with plans to execute Warren Hill on July 23rd. Hill was convicted of killing a fellow inmate in prison. He was already serving a life sentence for killing his girlfriend.

Previously a judge had ruled that he has an IQ of around 70 and therefore has an intellectual disability. The Supreme Court has left it up to the states to decide how to determine whether someone has an intellectual disability. Georgia is the only state that puts the burden of proof on the defendant. In other words, Warren Hill must himself prove his disability in order to be exempt from execution.

It makes no sense to expect someone who thinks and functions as a child to be able to figure out how to prove he has a disability. In fact, it is questionable as to whether he himself understands his disability enough to communicate it.

The Huffington Post reports:

In other words, executing a mentally retarded person with an IQ of 69 is like executing someone who functions at the level that a ten year old does. Mentally retarded people are significantly limited in what they are able to do, and in their ability to think ahead. A mentally retarded adult may have trouble driving a car, following directions, participating in hobbies or work of any complexity, or behaving in socially appropriate ways. He or she may have trouble sitting or standing still, or may smile constantly and inappropriately. For most mentally retarded people, limited adaptive skills make ordinary life extremely difficult unless a caring family or social support system exists to provide assistance and structure. Often, those persons facing a sentence of death usually come from extremely deprived conditions and have not received any such support, even if anyone recognized it was needed at all. They commonly come from poverty, are victims of or witnesses to violence in their homes and have few, if any, resources to cope with this lifelong condition. The environment in which they grew up is often riddled with crime, and they are easy prey for more cunning criminals who lead them into criminal activity. A mentally retarded person simply cannot see the world the way most of us are fortunate enough to be able to. For example, Morris Mason, whose IQ was 62-66, was executed in 1985 in Virginia after being convicted of rape and murder. Before his execution, Mason asked one of his legal advisors for advice on what to wear to his own funeral.