A bill aimed at keeping intellectually disabled people off Georgia’s death row is headed to the governor’s desk after passing the state Senate on Monday.
Supporters of House Bill 123 say the measure would bring Georgia in line with the 26 other states that still execute people. The legislation would reduce the burden needed to prove an intellectual disability in death penalty cases.
Under current law, a defendant must prove their disability beyond a reasonable doubt. It’s a high standard that’s unique to Georgia and nearly impossible to prove, defense attorneys say.
Most states have a lesser standard: a finding of disability “by a preponderance of the evidence,” meaning more likely than not, said state Rep. Bill Werkheiser, the Glennville Republican who introduced the measure aimed at ensuring those with intellectual disabilities are left off death row.
Under existing law in Georgia, it is left to jurors to determine if a defendant is intellectually disabled. The problem with that, Werkheiser said, is juries are often jaded by the facts presented at trial, which in death penalty cases typically include weeks of “gruesome testimony” and “horrendous photos.”
In addition to reducing the standard of proof needed to successfully argue a defendant has an intellectual disability, House Bill 123 would also allow for the matter to be argued during pretrial hearings, meaning a judge could decide the issue before the case ever goes to a jury.
“House Bill 123 is ensuring that, when we seek justice for capital crimes in our state, we are not sentencing to death those with intellectual disabilities. We are creating a pretrial process before a case gets to a jury whether the issue of someone’s intellectual disability can be decided by a judge,” state Sen. Brian Strickland, R-McDonough, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in the Senate chamber.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Minor tweaks to the legislation last week made it so the proposed law would go into effect immediately once signed by Gov. Brian Kemp. Other amendments included making sure attorneys have access to evidence before a judge makes a decision about a disability. And it gives the option for a sentence of life without parole.
“We left the option of life without parole knowing that, again, some people — while they may have a disability — are still such a threat to society that they should not be let out,” Strickland said.
Executing intellectually disabled people was outlawed by the Georgia Supreme Court in 1988, and the U.S. Supreme Court followed suit in 2002, ruling in Atkins v. Virginia that executing those with intellectual disabilities violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
But the U.S. Supreme Court left it up to the states to determine whether someone is intellectually disabled, Werkheiser said, calling Georgia’s requirement that someone’s disability be proved beyond a reasonable doubt a tough hurdle.
Those who represent defendants in death penalty cases call the proposed measure an important fix, and say it would no way impede the state’s ability to pursue the death penalty in most cases. Out of the 90 or so death penalty cases filed in Georgia in the past decade, 10 of the defendants claimed an intellectual disability, according to Michael Admirand, a senior attorney in the capital litigation unit at the Southern Center for Human Rights.
“This is a modest bill that’s going to affect a small number of cases, but it’s an important fix to Georgia’s death penalty procedures,” Admirand said.
The bill received a standing ovation when it unanimously passed the House earlier this month, and the legislation was supported by some state lawmakers who support capital punishment in certain circumstances.
“Everyone seemed to really like this policy,” Strickland said.
— Staff writer Jozsef Papp contributed to this report.
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
