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Capital Punishment Thesis

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Capital Punishment Thesis
Capital Punishment: Is it Just for the Mentally Retarded?

Thesis Statement: Issuing the death penalty for the mentally retarded is an unjust punishment.

I. Legal Stand on Capital Punishment and the Mentally Retarded

A. Supreme Court

1. Eighth Amendment

2. Consensus

B. States

II. Definition of Mental Retardation

A. I.Q. Tests

B. Adaptive Skills

C. Onset Before the Age of Eighteen

III. Problems with Mental Retardation and the Law

A. Waiving Rights

B. False Confessions

C. Ineffective Assistance to Counsel

IV. Case Histories

A. John Paul Penry

B. Earl Washington

C. Daryl Atkins

Cassie Zimmer

Instructor Harrod

Online Composition II

21 Nov. 2003

Capital Punishment: Is it Just for the Mentally Retarded?

On July 4, 1776, a group of fifty-five gentlemen drafted a set of rules called the Constitution. It was then, as is now, the law of the land that Americans live under. However, through the years it has been amended to allow for changes in society, and the way the American people evolve in thought and virtue. It is the job of the Supreme Court of the United States to interpret the Constitution and determine what exactly these amendments state.

Certain questions concerning the Constitution are often …show more content…
I.Q. scores are set up where the average score is 100. A cut-off score of 70 has been set as the intelligence level that indicates mental retardation. The majority of U.S. citizens have an I.Q. score between 80 and 120. Although intellectual levels among the retarded can vary a lot, an 89% estimate of their I.Q. levels are in the 57 to 70 ranges. These numbers are equivalent to that of a third grader. With that in mind, is execution the answer? In all fairness, though, the numbers that I.Q. tests produce are not perfectly reliable. These tests have a "measurement error" of about five points (Mossman
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