S. air force based in Virginia. (Gibeaut 2002) Atkins kidnapped Eric Nesbitt from a local 7-11 store, took him to an ATM and forced him to withdraw money so that he could use it to purchase beer. After Atkins obtained the man's money he proceeded to shoot the man 8 times and killed him. (Josefson 2002) Prior to this Atkins had 16 convictions.
In response to the Atkins V. Virginia trial, The U.S. Supreme court ruled 6-3 on June 20, 2002 that executing a mentally retarded prisoner is unconstitutional. In 1989 it was civilized to execute the mentally retarded. Now it is cruel. What has changed in the last 13 years, and why? Supreme court Justice, John Paul Stevens answers this question.
The consensus of the American public, legislators, and judges has changed since Penry was decided. State legislators across the country began to address the issue, and have generally reacted against it. The practice, therefore has become truly unusual and it is fair to say that a national consensus has developed against it.(Shultz, 2002, p.7).
Currently there are thirty-eight states that allow the death penalty. Out of these states eighteen of them exempt the mentally retarded. This is one of the biggest attributions to the supreme courts ruling on the Atkins V. Virginia case. (Myers 2002).
In 1937 John Steinbeck wrote a famous book called Of Mice and Men. This complex story of a man named George and his journey with a mentally retarded man named Lenny tore at the hearts of the reader, and made them think about the morality of killing someone out of protection for the rest of the world. In the book Lenny murdered a woman without knowing what he was doing. His best friend George ended up killing Lenny because he was being hunted down for murder. This book encourages thought about the constitutionality of executing the mentally retarded, "one instinct is to guide and protect them from the world, but our fears lead us to protect the world from them.
