If the death penalty is to be used at all, it should be imposed only on the most blameworthy offenders. By virtue of their mental impairment the mentally retarded can never meet that standard. Like children, they are incapable of calculated, mature evil. In 1989, a sharply divided Supreme Court reviewing Penry's case concluded that the 8th Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment did not preclude execution of the mentally retarded. Sadly, the standard of decency of almost every other country has evolved beyond that of the U.S. when it comes to the death penalty.
Efforts are underway in several other states to ban the execution of the retarded.
No one argues the mentally retarded should be excused entirely from criminal responsibility. But life imprisonment is sufficient to express society's outrage and grief at horrible crimes, to hold offenders accountable, and to protect society from further violence. It is time the U.S. joins the world in recognizing the senseless cruelty of executing anyone with the mind of a child.