Defendants with intellectual disabilities

1. Law
2. Arkansas Code
3. Criminal Offenses
4. General Provisions
5. Disposition of Offenders
6. Trial and Sentence — Capital Murder
7. Defendants with intellectual disabilities

1. (a)

   1. (1) As used in this section, “intellectual disabilities” means:

      1. (A) Significantly below-average general intellectual functioning accompanied by a significant deficit or impairment in adaptive functioning manifest in the developmental period, but no later than eighteen (18) years of age; and

      2. (B) A deficit in adaptive behavior.

   2. (2) There is a rebuttable presumption of intellectual disabilities when a defendant has an intelligence quotient of sixty-five (65) or below.

2. (b) No defendant with intellectual disabilities at the time of committing capital murder shall be sentenced to death.

3. (c) The defendant has the burden of proving intellectual disabilities at the time of committing the offense by a preponderance of the evidence.

4. (d)

   1. (1) A defendant on trial for capital murder shall raise the special sentencing provision of intellectual disabilities by motion prior to trial.

   2. (2)

      1. (A) Prior to trial, the court shall determine if the defendant has an intellectual disability.

      2. (B)

         1. (i) If the court determines that the defendant does not have an intellectual disability, the defendant may raise the question of an intellectual disability to the jury for determination de novo during the sentencing phase of the trial.

         2. (ii) At the time the jury retires to decide mitigating and aggravating circumstances, the jury shall be given a special verdict form on an intellectual disability.

         3. (iii) If the jury unanimously determines that the defendant had an intellectual disability at the time of the commission of capital murder, then the defendant will automatically be sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole.

      3. (C) If the court determines that the defendant has an intellectual disability, then:

         1. (i) The jury is not “death qualified”; and

         2. (ii) The jury shall sentence the defendant to life imprisonment without possibility of parole upon conviction.

5. (e) However, this section is not deemed to:

   1. (1) Require unanimity for consideration of any mitigating circumstance; or

   2. (2) Supersede any suggested mitigating circumstance regarding mental defect or disease currently found in § 5-4-605.

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