| Atkins v. Virginia | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Argued February 20, 2002 Decided June 20, 2002 | |
| Full case name | Daryl Renard Atkins, Petitioner v. Virginia |
| Citations | 536 U.S. 304 (more) 122 S. Ct. 2242; 153 L. Ed. 2d 335; 2002 U.S. LEXIS 4648; 70 U.S.L.W. 4585; 2002 Cal. Daily Op. Service 5439; 2002 Daily Journal DAR 6937; 15 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 397 |
| Argument | Oral argument |
| Case history | |
| Prior | Defendant convicted, York County Virginia Circuit Court; affirmed in part, reversed in part, remanded, 510 S.E.2d 445 (Va. 1999); defendant resentenced, York County Circuit Court; affirmed, 534 S.E.2d 312 (Va. 2000); cert. granted, 533 U.S. 976 (2001). |
| Subsequent | Remanded to Circuit Court, 581 S.E.2d 514 (Va. 2003) |
| Holding | |
| A Virginia law allowing the execution of mentally disabled individuals violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishments. Supreme Court of Virginia reversed and remanded. | |
| Court membership | |
| |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Stevens, joined by O'Connor, Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer |
| Dissent | Rehnquist, joined by Scalia, Thomas |
| Dissent | Scalia, joined by Rehnquist, Thomas |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. amend. VIII | |
This case overturned a previous ruling or rulings | |
| Penry v. Lynaugh | |
Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002), is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 6–3 that executing people with intellectual disabilities violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishments, but that states can define who has an intellectual disability. At the time Atkins was decided, 18 of the 38 death penalty states exempted mentally disabled offenders from the death penalty.
Twelve years later in Hall v. Florida the U.S. Supreme Court narrowed the discretion under which U.S. states can designate an individual convicted of murder as too intellectually incapacitated to be executed.