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| Alphonso Stripling (Courtesy of the GA Dept. of Corrections) |
According to the Georgia Supreme Court, defendants who claim to be mentally disabled have the burden of proving it "beyond a reasonable doubt," making ours the only state with a reasonable-doubt standard. In every other state that allows capital punishment, a mental handicap can be proven by a “preponderance of the evidence.”
One Justice worried that the law allows for the possibility that mentally disabled people could, in fact, be put to death in Georgia. In his dissent, Judge Robert Benham wrote:
“Setting a standard so high as to require proof beyond a reasonable doubt greatly increases the chance that any mentally retarded person will be executed — an outcome absolutely prohibited by the Eighth Amendment."
Are we so focused on maximizing the absolute penalty of death that we would risk wrongfully executing someone with a clinically identified mental disability? To do so is an impermissible violation of our Constitution and a senseless assault against morality and human decency. Accordingly, I would join the majority of jurisdictions imposing the death penalty which require a defendant alleging a mental disability to prove his deficiency by a preponderance of the evidence.”
The ruling was in reaction to the trial of Alphonso Stripling, who was convicted of and sentenced to death for shooting two men in a Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1988. The Supreme Court granted Stripling a new trial, not to determine his guilt or innocence, but strictly to determine whether or not he is mentally disabled. If Stripling can prove his handicap, he'll face life imprisonment rather than lethal injection.
Stuart, Gwynedd. "Mentally disabled? Ga. Supreme court says 'prove it'" Creative Loafing. 6/13/11. Posted 6/15/11
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