cases were being heard despite the fact that 12 years earlier, the court had rendered a decision that such executions were constitutional.
In 1989 in Penry v. Lynaugh (492 US 584) the U.S. Supreme Court held that the execution of persons with mental retardation was not in violation of the Eighth Amendment, instead mental retardation could be seen as a mitigating factor (International Justice, 2004). In 2002, the Supreme Court held in Atkins v. Virginia that the execution of persons with mental retardation was unconstitutional. This decision reflected a growing recognition of consensus that those with mental retardation do not possess the requisite degree of culpability and therefore, a sentence of death is contrary to the principle of proportionality. A person who suffers from mental retardation cannot fully appreciate the consequences of their actions, or comprehend the punishment for such actions. These people often do not have the capacity to fully understand abstract concepts such as de
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