Saturday, January 23, 2010

Atkins court decision added: Herring v Florida (2009)


Herring v Florida (2009) is now listed in the Court Decisions blog sidebar, courtesy of Dr. Tom Oakland (listed under Professional Expert section of blog). 

According to Tom, this was a good decision.  According to Tom, the following issues were notable:
  • The decision rested heavily on the use of the DSM rather than the State's more restrictive definition of M/ID.
  • Herring, the petitioner, had at least 4 IQs above 70. This will seemingly gave credence to the use of the Flynn Effect.  After the FE adjustment, the IQs were above 70.
  • The court correctly viewed the assessment of adaptive behaviours displayed in prison to be inappropriate, given the setting's restrictiveness.