Capital cases; mental retardation. (HB1720)

Introduced By

Del. Patrick Hope (D-Arlington)

Progress

Introduced
Passed Committee
Passed House
Passed Senate
Signed by Governor
Became Law

Description

Capital cases; mental retardation. Requires that the results of an intelligence test given in the process of determining whether a capital case defendant is mentally retarded must be reported as a range of scores calculated by adding to and subtracting from the defendant's test score the standard error of measurement for such test. Read the Bill »

Outcome

Bill Has Failed

History

DateAction
01/12/2015Committee
01/12/2015Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/14/15 15103115D
01/12/2015Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice
01/16/2015Impact statement from VCSC (HB1720)
01/20/2015Assigned Courts sub: Criminal Law
01/26/2015Subcommittee recommends laying on the table
02/10/2015Left in Courts of Justice

Duplicate Bills

The following bills are identical to this one: SB855.

Comments

ACLU-VA Criminal Justice, tracking this bill in Photosynthesis, notes:

The ACLU of Virginia strongly supports legislation that would bring Virginia’s intellectual disability threshold vis-à-vis eligibility for the death penalty in line with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on Hall v. Florida. The Court found that Florida’s use of a hard 70 IQ cutoff was unconstitutional. Virginia uses the same hard 70 IQ cutoff. While the ACLU of Virginia continues to advocate for death penalty repeal, we also support legislation designed to ensure better procedural safeguards for intellectually disabled defendants accused of a capital offense.

ACLU-VA Legislative Agenda, tracking this bill in Photosynthesis, notes:

The ACLU of Virginia strongly supports legislation that would bring Virginia’s intellectual disability threshold vis-à-vis eligibility for the death penalty in line with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on Hall v. Florida. The Court found that Florida’s use of a hard 70 IQ cutoff was unconstitutional. Virginia uses the same hard 70 IQ cutoff. While the ACLU of Virginia continues to advocate for death penalty repeal, we also support legislation designed to ensure better procedural safeguards for intellectually disabled defendants accused of a capital offense.