Overview of Penry v. Lynaugh
The Court Considers the Death Penalty and Mental Capacity
In 1989, the Supreme Court decided in Penry v. Lynaugh that the execution of the mentally retarded was not cruel and unusual punishment per se because "there is insufficient evidence of a national consensus against executing mentally retarded people convicted of capital offenses for [the Court] to conclude that it is categorically prohibited by the Eighth Amendment." Since that time, lower courts have followed very closely the ruling in Penry, thereby discouraging arguments that subjecting mentally retarded defendants to capital punishment violates the Eighth Amendment.On the other hand, since Penry, the number of death penalty States that prohibit the execution…
