Intellectual Disability: A Digest of Complex Concepts in Atkins Proceedings

In 2002 the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in Atkins v. Virginia,¹ which categorically banned the death penalty for defendants who have intellectual disability.² Since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Atkins, hundreds of capital defendants’ cases have come before state and federal courts for factual determination of the presence of this disability. A review of these cases demonstrates that courts, attorneys, law enforcement, and forensic experts have limited understanding of the scientific fundamentals of a diagnosis of intellectual disability.