The United States Supreme Court has just heard oral arguments in a death penalty case where the intellectual ability and mental capabilities of the defendant is an issue. 

Those interested in this aspect of capital punishment may want to read the oral argument transcript in Moore v. Texas, which is available online here.

DSM and Death Penalty

Notice the discussion of  the  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

What is appropriate?  What is accurate?

Here’s an earlier post on the issue for a background on DSM — did you know that narcissistic personality disorder was removed from DSM-V? See, "Use of DSM in the Law: the Doctors Need to Recognize this Reality in DSM-V."

See also, which discusses the impact of Hall v. Florida on this issue: Assessing Adaptive Functioning in Death Penalty Cases after Hall and DSM-5, Leigh D. Hagan, Eric Y. Drogin, Thomas J. Guilmette Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online Mar 2016, 44 (1) 96-105.