After about 15 hours of deliberation, the jury of six men and six women decided Friday that Atkins’ defense attorneys failed to show that he is retarded.
…During seven days of testimony, defense attorneys spoke of Atkins’ problems performing simple tasks, his inability to distinguish left from right or odd from even and his repeated academic failure. The defense argued that IQ test scores showed he had less intelligence than 96 percent of Americans.
Prosecutors contended that Atkins’ IQ scores showed he was a slow learner but not retarded and argued that he failed in school because he chose to abuse drugs, skip school and commit crimes.”
I have been following the Atkins case and related concerns. Ironically, one of the issues was whether the compelling stimulation of collaborating on his death sentence appeal accelerated his intellectual development out of the officially retarded range.
