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"cruel and unusual" and "evolving standards of decency" (JFGI, there are no links here)
Have I mentioned that I'm against capital punishment?
In 2002, SCOTUS ruled that executing someone who is "mentally retarded" is indeed "cruel and unusual". However, they left it open for the states to decide who is intellectually disabled and who is not.
In Florida, the lawmakers have decided to set a firm line to decide who is and is not exempt from execution because of this ruling. They've decided to use an IQ of 70 while discounting ALL OTHER FACTORS.
Florida isn't the only state to do the runaround and play with the 'up to the states to decide' loophole. In 2012, Texas executed Marvin Wilson, who was most definitely intellectually disabled. Not only was his IQ around 61 (if you want to go by a flawed test in the first place), his psychological evaluations and life history clearly point toward a level of disability on par with what the 2002 SCOTUS ruling was talking about in the first place. (Georgia has done it too, and probably others, but I'm really NOT in the mood to dwell on this at the moment)
*deep breath*
So now there's a case going before SCOTUS that could potentially close the loophole. Florida wants to execute Freddie Lee Hall (who is guilty by every definition I can think of at the moment). His IQ is recorded at 71, which is one point over the arbitrary line Florida has forged. The crimes he's been convicted of are awful, of that there is no doubt. His is not a good case to be setting any sort of precedent. But in order to put an end to the morally repugnant practice of using the loophole SCOTUS gave the states...
I don't know. The Justices will have to say 'Florida, you've gone too far, and the other states have gone too far, and now we are closing the loophole.' I guess. That's how it works, right? I'm not all that legally educated.
Will SCOTUS see a man who should be executed by the standards of the country's capital punishment laws and let it happen, discounting the fact that the states are doing an end run on the 2002 ruling and making it basically worthless? Will they see a man who should not be executed because they ruled he was exempt from execution in the first place? Or will they... what? Ugh.
So basically I don't really know what I'm talking about but I'm still angry about it. And that's pretty normal for me.
In 2002, SCOTUS ruled that executing someone who is "mentally retarded" is indeed "cruel and unusual". However, they left it open for the states to decide who is intellectually disabled and who is not.
In Florida, the lawmakers have decided to set a firm line to decide who is and is not exempt from execution because of this ruling. They've decided to use an IQ of 70 while discounting ALL OTHER FACTORS.
Florida isn't the only state to do the runaround and play with the 'up to the states to decide' loophole. In 2012, Texas executed Marvin Wilson, who was most definitely intellectually disabled. Not only was his IQ around 61 (if you want to go by a flawed test in the first place), his psychological evaluations and life history clearly point toward a level of disability on par with what the 2002 SCOTUS ruling was talking about in the first place. (Georgia has done it too, and probably others, but I'm really NOT in the mood to dwell on this at the moment)
*deep breath*
So now there's a case going before SCOTUS that could potentially close the loophole. Florida wants to execute Freddie Lee Hall (who is guilty by every definition I can think of at the moment). His IQ is recorded at 71, which is one point over the arbitrary line Florida has forged. The crimes he's been convicted of are awful, of that there is no doubt. His is not a good case to be setting any sort of precedent. But in order to put an end to the morally repugnant practice of using the loophole SCOTUS gave the states...
I don't know. The Justices will have to say 'Florida, you've gone too far, and the other states have gone too far, and now we are closing the loophole.' I guess. That's how it works, right? I'm not all that legally educated.
Will SCOTUS see a man who should be executed by the standards of the country's capital punishment laws and let it happen, discounting the fact that the states are doing an end run on the 2002 ruling and making it basically worthless? Will they see a man who should not be executed because they ruled he was exempt from execution in the first place? Or will they... what? Ugh.
So basically I don't really know what I'm talking about but I'm still angry about it. And that's pretty normal for me.
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I hope the Supreme Court goes with the defense on this one.
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I was going to say that the case isn't the best one to get an anti-capital-punishment result.
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