Book Review: Excluding intellectually disabled offenders from execution: The continuing journey to implement Atkins

• Author: Clarissa Aguilar
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016815588364
• Published date: 01 December 2015
• Date: 01 December 2015
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

Book Reviews
529
Peggy, M. T. (2014).
Excluding intellectually disabled offenders from execution: The continuing journey to implement Atkins. Durham, NC:
Carolina Academic Press. 274 pp. $33.00, ISBN 978-1611635638.
Reviewed by: Clarissa Aguilar, University of Houston–Clear Lake, Houston, TX, USA
DOI: 10.1177/0734016815588364
In Excluding Intellectually Disabled Offenders from Execution: The Continuing Journey to Imple-
ment Atkins, Tobolowsky examines Atkins claims throughout the death penalty states in order to
ascertain the effectiveness of the 2002 Atkins ruling. This relatively recent court ruling has produced
a myriad of obstacles for the over 400 individuals who have filed Atkins claims. As Tobolowsky
guides the reader throughout the literature surrounding intellectual disability in the courtroom, it
becomes apparent that there is a great amount of inconsistency at almost all levels of the claim’s
process. In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court codified the collective decision that it is a violation of the
constitution to execute an intellectually disabled offender. Since then, some unsuccessful Atkins
claims have shown that lethal injection hinges on one or two points from an IQ score. This carefully
written record is a must read for individuals interested in how the criminal justice system has
responded to offenders with mental disabilities and what the United States as a sovereign nation has
done to implement the Atkins ruling.
According to Atkins v. Virginia, the Supreme Court decreed that executing individuals who are
intellectually disabled qualifies as cruel and unusual punishment and is therefore prohibited by the
Eighth Amendment of the Constitution. However, the Supreme Court left it to the individual states
to define intellectual disability. This has resulted in varied standards for an intellectual disability
across the country. Some states relied on a definition of intellectual disability as it is defined by the
American Psychological Association (APA), and other...