When you think about it, it's amazing really. In Texas, a person can be mentally retarded yet competent - competent yet insane. Does that even make sense?
Not too terribly long ago, in Atikins v. Virginia, the US Supreme Court ruled that a mentally retarded person could not be executed - it's a violation of the 8th Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. (It's a whole separate issue that it took the United States, one of the most civilized countries in the entire world, until 2002 to come to this realization). However, a mentally retarded person can be put to trial for a criminal act...an intentional or knowing criminal act...and a mentally retarded person can be sentenced to prison - even life in prison. After all, a mentally retarded person, by definition, has significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors.
Confused?
In Texas, in order to be competent a person simply has to have a sufficient present ability to consult with the person's lawyer with a reasonable degree of rational understanding and a rational as well as faction understanding of the proceedings against him. Further, in Texas there is a presumption of competency.
What then of the mentally retarded whom psychologists deem competent? Once a mentally retarded yet technically competent person is subjected to the criminal justice system, chances are that he will forever be a statistic in the criminal justice system absent a loving family or some other source of support. I certainly don't pretend to have all of the answers but there must be a better solution than just warehousing people...mentally retarded people. It is simply beyond comprehension...
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