this Georgia houses A bill was passed unanimously on Tuesday, reducing the threshold for those facing the death penalty, which would qualify them for the death penalty.
Rep. Bill Werkheiser, a Republican, has previously Legislation has been introduced Designed to make it easier for someone to prove themselves to be intellectually disabled in order to avoid the death penalty in Tao State, this is one of the toughest thresholds in the United States.
The bill was introduced a few months ago by Willie James Pye, who allegedly had low IQ to indicate that he was mentally disabled, was executed after the death of his ex-girlfriend Alicia Lynn Yarbrough in 1993. Pye’s lawyer believes he was damaged in his intellectual disability and his mind.
Pye’s execution plagued Werkheiser, whose legislation at the time never voted on the committee, but the bill gained more legislative support after unanimously passing the House. Now it will go to the Senate.
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Rep. Bill Werkheiser, a Republican of Georgia, said he believes the state is “responsible” to “protect those who cannot protect themselves.” (AP)
Georgia became the first state to sentence people with intellectual disabilities to death in 1988. The U.S. Supreme Court later litigated and ruled in 2002 that enforcing people with mental disabilities violated constitutional protections for cruel and unusual punishments.
However, the court allowed states to determine the threshold for a person to be considered a person with intellectual disabilities. Georgia requires people to prove intellectual disability beyond reasonable doubt, making it the only state with such a high burden of proof.
The bill proposed Tuesday, which also allows defendants to present evidence of intellectual disability at pre-trial hearings, which would be mandatory if prosecutors agree. If convicted at trial, the defendant can present evidence of intellectual disability in a separate process before the same jury.
Defendant found to have intellectual disabilities will be obtained Life sentences If convicted.
“I believe it is a responsibility to protect those who cannot protect themselves,” Welkhether said.
In another case, Warren Lee Hill was executed in Georgia in 2015 for killing a detainee, despite his attorneys arguing that he had an intellectual disability. In 2002, the judge said Hill would likely be found to have an intellectual disability if the standards used in Georgia were much lower than reasonable doubt.
The Georgia House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill to reduce the threshold for those facing the death penalty to be considered mentally retarded and make them not eligible for enforcement. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, file)
When the Georgia Supreme Court upheld the death penalty against Rodney Young in 2021, the Justice found that he failed to prove that he was intellectually mentally retarded, despite being manifested as Judge David Nahmias at the time, he would “accept” legislative efforts to lower the threshold.
Young was sentenced to death in the killing of his ex-wife’s adult son Gary Jones in 2008.
Prosecutors testified at the committee’s hearing that they do not object to amending reasonable standards of skepticism, but they oppose changing the trial process and joining pre-trial hearings.
“The proposed Bill Cherry-Picks,” said T. Wright Barksdale III, District Attorney for the Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit Court in Central Georgia.
Supporters of the bill believe that if jurors have heard the creepy crime details, they may have a hard time assessing the defendant’s intellectual disability without evidence of bias.
Most states allow defendants the opportunity to prove their intellectual disability before trial and have separate procedures for determining the defendant’s guilt and determining his intellectual disability.
“Changing the proof standards alone is not enough to ensure that Georgia does not continue to enforce effective claims for persons with mental disabilities,” said Mazie Lynn Guertin, executive director of the Georgia Criminal Defense Bar Association.
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Georgia Supreme Court judge found that Rodney Young, a man sentenced to death, failed to prove that he was intellectually disabled and maintained his death penalty. (Ben Gray/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
Barksdale claims the proposal would overcomplicate the process and prevent the death penalty from being fully carried out.
“With this law being built, and based on the experience of capital cases I’ve tried, it will weaken us so much that we will never really be able to shoot anyone with a death penalty,” Barksdale said.
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At two committee hearings on the bill, Republican and Democratic lawmakers seemed distrustful of the belief that procedural changes would overcomplicate the process. They noted that death penalty cases have taken a long time, including many motions and hearings before trial.
“We’re in this state to be sentenced to death. I won’t debate it,” Rep. Esther Panitch, a Democratic, who is also a criminal defense attorney, said Tuesday. “But if we are to avoid the ultimate punishment, it should be just the worst case scenario, and those we took the time to make sure we understood their culprit.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
