The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has ruled in the case of Bobby Moore v. State of Texas, and it’s a victory for opponents of the death penalty.
This case is one more step in the treatment of those with mental health issues or intellectual disability issues in capital punishment. Another recent and important case here: 2014’s Hall v. Florida.
Moore v. Texas Does Two Things
In an opinion written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, two things have happened:
1. Texas Death Row Inmate Bobby Moore will get the opportunity to argue that he should not be executed because his intellectual disability bars him from capital punishment as cruel and unusual punishment under the U.S. Constitution; and
2. The State of Texas has been told its method of determining who can be executed when their intellectual abilities are in question is wrong. Its procedure does not meet constitutional muster according to SCOTUS.
Full Text of Moore v. Texas
Read the opinion here as we’ve stored it in the Terence Lenamon Online Library: