ABSTRACT
In Atkins v. Virginia, 536 US 304, the US Supreme Court held that the execution of mentally retarded persons violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. A Virginia jury had sentenced Darryl Atkins to death for abduction, armed robbery, and murder after he and codefendant William James robbed Eric Nes- bitt at gunpoint and forced him to drive them to an automatic teller machine. By a six-three majority, the US Supreme Court reversed the sentence. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the Court's opinion holding that executing the mentally retarded violated contemporary standards of decency and was therefore cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. The Court agreed with emerging public opinion that although retarded criminals should be punished, their diminished capacities-to process information, to communicate, to think abstractly, to learn from mistakes, and so on-resulted in diminished culpability.
