Can people with mental retardation be executed? I had a similar case at the beginning of my law career Arizona woman may avoid death penalty in murder of daughter due to low IQ Sophia Simmons, 41, is accused of killing Dior Echols' 8-year-old daughter. The prosecution is seeking to sentence the woman to the death penalty, but a preliminary psychological examination revealed an IQ of 53, which may save her from the maximum sentence. The girl's body was discovered in a garbage can in Phoenix on December 24, 2023, after an anonymous tip. According to the investigation, the child had many injuries, and some of the wounds were in different stages of healing: according to the investigators, this indicates constant violence on the part of the mother. According to Arizona law, if a court determines that a defendant is mentally retarded, he cannot be executed even if he is convicted of a capital offense. The results of the preliminary examination are not enough: now the defense and prosecution experts must conduct additional tests on the accused, after which the court will consider the question of whether she is mentally retarded in order to avoid execution. In the case in which I participated in the mission in the mid-1990s, a 20-year-old guy with mental retardation (experts concluded that his intellectual development corresponds to the level of development of an 8-year-old boy) raped and killed a woman under the age of 70, as well as her husband; They buried their bodies, and stuck fresh branches in the ground, picked from a row of growing bushes. The branches withered - the bodies were found. His mother, an ordinary village woman, who saw his uncontrolled sexual activity and expected trouble, repeatedly wrote to all the authorities from the village council to the president, begging her to admit her son to a mental hospital, but to no avail. In court, when asked why he raped such an old woman, he answered with sophistication: "The cock is not looking for peers! ".

Can people with mental retardation be executed? I had a similar case at the beginning of my law career Arizona woman may avoid death penalty in murder of daughter due to low IQ Sophia Simmons, 41, is accused of killing Dior Echols' 8-year-old daughter. The prosecution is seeking to sentence the woman to the death penalty, but a preliminary psychological examination revealed an IQ of 53, which may save her from the maximum sentence. The girl's body was discovered in a garbage can in Phoenix on December 24, 2023, after an anonymous tip. According to the investigation, the child had many injuries, and some of the wounds were in different stages of healing: according to the investigators, this indicates constant violence on the part of the mother. According to Arizona law, if a court determines that a defendant is mentally retarded, he cannot be executed even if he is convicted of a capital offense. The results of the preliminary examination are not enough: now the defense and prosecution experts must conduct additional tests on the accused, after which the court will consider the question of whether she is mentally retarded in order to avoid execution. In the case in which I participated in the mission in the mid-1990s, a 20-year-old guy with mental retardation (experts concluded that his intellectual development corresponds to the level of development of an 8-year-old boy) raped and killed a woman under the age of 70, as well as her husband; They buried their bodies, and stuck fresh branches in the ground, picked from a row of growing bushes. The branches withered - the bodies were found. His mother, an ordinary village woman, who saw his uncontrolled sexual activity and expected trouble, repeatedly wrote to all the authorities from the village council to the president, begging her to admit her son to a mental hospital, but to no avail. In court, when asked why he raped such an old woman, he answered with sophistication: "The cock is not looking for peers! ".