https://flip.it/HQ6wrM
Kevin S. McGrew, PhD
Educational & School Psychologist
Director
Institute for Applied Psychometrics (IAP)
https://www.themindhub.com
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An attempt to provide understandable and up-to-date information regarding intelligence testing, intelligence theories, personal competence, adaptive behavior and intellectual disability (mental retardation) as they relate to death penalty (capital punishment) issues. A particular focus will be on psychological measurement, statistical and psychometric issues.
Intellectual Disability: Definition, Diagnosis, Classification, and Systems of Supports, 12th Edition, has just been published and can be purchased from our bookstore.
All professionals in the field need this important reference book, which integrates the findings and developments of the last 10 years in a systematic approach to diagnosis, optional subgroup classification, and planning of systems of supports for people with ID.
In addition, the 12th edition examines the construct of age of onset as a criterion in diagnosis and presents the operational definition in a way that will be critically important to professionals in the field.
Buy your copy now in the AAIDD Bookstore!
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American Association on Intellectual
and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD)
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Telephone: 202-387-1968
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This email was sent to iap@earthlink.net by books@aaidd.orgAmerican Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities • 8403 Colesville Road, Suite 900, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910, United States
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Twice in the past few weeks, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has reversed adverse prior decisions regarding Atkins intellectual disability death penalty decisions.
Click here for Webster (2020)
Click here for Guevara (2020)
Prior documents and decisions related to these two cases can be found in the court decisions blog roll on the right-hand side of this blog.
The California Legislature has changed the definition of ID to be less racially biased. In particular, it now bans the use of demographically adjusted or "Heaton" norms. See story here...where a link is provided to download the PDF.
The database we have considered here is infinitely depressing. There was only actual relief in 12.4% of the cases that raised Atkins issues, and this grouping of nine cases includes two in which the defendant died before the final relief could be implemented. What it reveals is a Court with little or no interest in the thoughtful opinions of Justice Stevens in Atkins and of Justice Kennedy in Hall. The science is ignored, and the jurisprudence is ignored. Baseless fears of undetected malingering, the mindless use of lay stereotypes of what “looks like” remorse, and the corrupt employment of “ethnic adjustments” to lawlessly raise IQ scores making certain minority defendants improperly eligible for execution all are reflected in the cases decided by the Fifth Circuit. Certainly, the earlier conclusion reached by Professor John Blume and his colleagues (in their empirical study of all Atkins claims) – that “Atkins is not evenhandedly protecting those it was designed to protect”296—rings as true today as it did when written eleven years ago. On the other hand, the cases reveal important potential strategies for defense counsel: (1) It is essential that allegations of malingering be vigorously rebutted through expert testimony; (2) even though the Fifth Circuit has not yet acknowledged its scientific validity, the Flynn effect must be brought to the Court’s attention, (3) the defendant should be given a WAIS test, and the WISC test must be avoided, (4) the use of lay stereotypes of “showing remorse” must be firmly discredited. If these are all done, then there is at least some chance that Atkins and its progeny will be given life in subsequent cases.
In 1986, the USSC ruled that it was a violation of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution (cruel and unusual punishment) to execute someone who was 'insane'. (Ford v. Wainwright) In capital cases, a sentencing proceeding has, for many years, consisted of a jury hearing 'aggravating factors' from the state and 'mitigating factors' from the defense. Defense attorneys are now able to proffer someone's mental health history as a possible mitigating factor in capital cases, arguing that the mental illness played some role in the commission of the crime, and that therefore, the defendant should be sentenced to life imprisonment rather than death. A case called Eddings v. Oklahoma (1982) argued in front of the USSC resulted in a finding that the defense is entitled to use any possible mitigating evidence in a capital trial. Of course, the prosecution wants to present a strong case for capital punishment and therefore will present aggravating factors that include the defendant's propensity for violent behavior. Unfortunately, all too often these predictions of dangerousness are made in expert testimony where the expert is unaware of the real limitations documented in the research of predicting future violent behavior. In 2002, the USSC ruled that it was unconstitutional (again Eighth Amendment violation) to execute a mentally retarded defendant (Atkins v. Virginia). Unfortunately, several individual states adopted rather idiosyncratic definitions of mental retardation and some allowed the artificial inflation of I.Q. scores based on testimony that it was an 'ethnic adjustment'. This chapter describes some of the ways mental health professionals can work in death penalty clinics with defense attorneys or with state prosecutors on these cases.