State Statutes on Intellectual Disability For Capital Defendants: Moore v. Texas

• In Event: Complexities of Capital Punishment

Abstract

Forty years have passed since the U.S. Supreme Court reintroduced the death penalty to the American criminal justice system. During that time, states' use of capital punishment peaked in 1999 before dwindling to just a few states carrying out executions in 2016. Despite steadily declining use, the death penalty continues to draw significant attention from the Court. The latest case is Moore v. Texas, which will likely be decided during summer 2017. It addresses the issue of whether Texas' use of their own definition when determining intellectual disability in capital punishment cases is constitutionally permissible.
In an effort to understand how states have interpreted previous Court ruling on intellectual disability, this article analyzes statutes and court cases from the 31 death penalty states using 11 legal variables. Results show that 20% or less of death penalty states follow best practices identified by legal experts for eight of the 11 variables. The article concludes by proposing model legislation states can adopt to prevent the wrongful execution of intellectually disabled individuals, and therefore prevent cruel and unusual punishment.

Authors

• Alexander H. Updegrove, Sam Houston State University

• Rolando V. del Carmen, Sam Houston State University

• Michael Vaughn, Sam Houston State University