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Resources
The resources section of this website is designed to provide litigators with the essential tools to assist in the defence of offenders with mental retardation.
Please read the IJP's collection of sample mental retardation briefs.
- Atkins v. Virginia
- A Practitioner’s Guide To Defending Capital Clients Who Have Mental Retardation, October 2006.
This guide provides an invaluable resource for all attorneys involved in capital litigation. The purpose of the guide is to assist criminal defence attorneys, and members of the defence teams, to develop the knowledge and strategic understanding required to protect clients under Atkins v. Virginia.
The guide consists of three parts:
- Part I addresses the evidence of mental retardation: what mental retardation is, how it affects people, investigation and corresponding issues.
- Part II addresses the array of legal issues that need to be raised, or considered, in representing a client who has mental retardation.
- Part III addresses the articulation of international law, instruments and norms relating to capital punishment and mental retardation and the possibilities of alternative avenues of appeal to the U.S. legal system.
- Appendix: Adaptive Behavior: Background Questions to Ask Credible Informants (Combined
Version)
The guide can be downloaded from the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel and the Habeas Assistance and Training Project website at: http://www.capdefnet.org/
Alternatively, please contact the IJP to request a PDF version. E-mail at billbettuk@aol.com
- Atkins v Virginia Summary
- Atkins v Virginia Implications
- Syllabus
- Majority Opinion
- Dissent (Rehnquist)
- Dissent (Scalia)
- International Human Rights Law and Instruments: An overview of international law concepts and pertinent resources.
- Links
- Mental Retardation and the Death
Penalty: A Guide to State Legislative Issues; by James W. Ellis, Regents Professor of Law, University of New Mexico School of Law
- Beyond Reason: The Death Penalty and Offenders with Mental Retardation,
available at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/ustat/
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