User:Lsobrils/sandbox

In determining competence to be executed, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) relied on the argument that execution's purpose is to provide retribution to the aggrieved party and to act as a deterrent against similar acts. Using this foundation, SCOTUS found that there are some people for whom execution is not appropriate and would not be able to serve either its retributive or deterrent purposes. There are three ways in which one can be considered incompetent for execution: being deemed insane, having an intellectual disability, or have committed the crime subject to capital punishment while a minor.

The Supreme Court of the United States in Ford v. Wainwright (1986) determined that the Eighth Amendment protects people deemed insane from being executed because execution of an insane individual would be a cruel and unusual punishment. In this decision, Justice Powell more clearly stated that to be considered sane, and therefore fit to be executed, a person must firstly be aware that they are about to be executed and secondly know why they are being executed. This requirement was extended by the Supreme Court's Panetti v. Quarterman (2007) decision, to include that a person needs to rationally understand why they are being executed. To rationally understand the reason for execution, a death row inmate must believe that they are being executed because of the crime they are charged with. In the Panetti v. Quarterman case, Scott Louis Panetti had schizophrenia and was under the delusional belief that he was being executed due to religious persecution rather than because he committed murder. While he may have understood that he was to receive capital punishment due to his murder conviction, his extreme delusions prevented him from rationally understanding why he was to be executed.

The Supreme Court of the United States in the Atkins v. Virginia (2002) case used the Eighth Amendment’s cruel and unusual punishment clause to determine that those with intellectual disabilities are not competent to be executed due to diminished culpability. Otherwise put, those with intellectual disabilities are exempt from execution because they are insufficiently responsible for their crimes. The Supreme Court of the United States in Roper v. Simmons (2005) decided that it was unconstitutional to execute individuals for crimes committed under the age of majority using the same reasoning in Atkins v. Virginia (2002).