The Constitution Says People with Intellectual Disability Can’t Be Executed
Dear Friends of TDS,
One of the most disturbing features of the death penalty is how it systematically targets vulnerable people—people who, because of mental illness or cognitive deficits, are unable to advocate for themselves. Among the vulnerable people overrepresented in capital prosecutions and on death row are those with intellectual disability.
Intellectual disability is a lifelong condition. It affects a person’s ability to reason, learn, and perform everyday skills like communication and self-care. It shows up in childhood and is diagnosed using accepted clinical standards. Almost 25 years ago, in the landmark case Atkins v. Virginia, SCOTUS ruled that executing someone with intellectual disability violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment because the condition affects a person’s moral culpability and understanding.
The Supreme Court also emphasized that intellectual disabilities affect whether someone can meaningfully participate in their own defense, making them especially vulnerable to unjust prosecutions. Courts are supposed to carefully assess people’s intellectual deficits, but too often, this doesn’t happen the way it should.
As a result, in Texas, people with intellectual disability continue to face death sentences and execution.
At Texas Defender Service, we advocate for people with intellectual disability, fighting to prove that they meet the clinical criteria for intellectual disability and that the law prohibits exposing them to the death penalty because of their condition.
Since 2018, Texas Defender Service has helped save seven people with intellectual disability from execution. TDS brings forward life stories that courts often don’t often hear or take into account when a person first went to trial, building the case that should have been made before a death sentence was ever handed down. We often see how systems have failed people with intellectual disability long before their first interaction with criminal-legal institutions.
With your support, TDS is holding the system accountable to the people it too often fails, and fighting for the law to be applied the way it’s supposed to be. Thank you for standing with us and our clients.
With gratitude,
Burke Butler
Co-Executive Director
Texas Defender Service
