Georgia House Committee Unanimously Passes Bill to Protect Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities from Death Penalty

For the past eight years, SCHR has worked tirelessly to change a law that puts people with intellectual disability at greater risk of execution than any other state.

House Bill 123 (HB 123), which seeks to protect those with intellectual disability and end the unconstitutional practice of sentencing them to death, passed unanimously out of the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee last week.

Despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2002 ruling in Atkins v. Virginia that executing people with intellectual disability amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, Georgia remains the only state in the country that forces people to prove their disability beyond a reasonable doubt to avoid execution.

Georgia is also the only state that asks a jury to decide both guilt and intellectual disability at the same time, making it more difficult and confusing for jurors to evaluate each separately. Perhaps that’s why there has never been a finding of intellectual disability in a case involving intentional murder.

HB 123 is a critical safeguard for people with intellectual disability and a top priority this legislative session. Mike Admirand, a senior attorney in our Capital Litigation Unit, testified at the committee hearing. Watch his testimony below.