Daryl Atkins

Daryl Atkins Eligible for execution is about Daryl Atkins murder case. Unlike most murder cases though Daryl Atkins was mentally retarded and the debate wasn’t weather he was guilty or innocent, it was if he should receive the death penalty for his crime or not. The location of the crime played a big role in the jury selection because York County was a more white area compared to Hampton County where Atkins abducted Nesbitt. “The prosecutor is the public official who represents the people in legal actions against the criminal offender” (pg 25).

For serious cases like this case the prosecutor gets involved earlier and work with the police to create a case. Virginia appoints lawyers that meet certain qualifications to represent people who can’t afford a lawyer. Hampton County appointed George Rogers for Atkins and 2 lawyers for William Jones (Timothy Clancy and Leslie Smith). “Under Virginia law “the willful, deliberate and premeditated killing of any person during the commission of a serious crime, such as robbery, abduction, or rape, constitutes capital murder” (pg. 0). Daryl Atkins bail was overly excessive at $650,00 considering he wasn’t believed to be the killer, had know violent acts prior, and was to poor to actually post that bail amount. A grand jury is when a group of people are presented evidence from the prosecutor. The grand Jury looks over this evidence and decides if the case should go forward and proceed to trial which would be a ‘true bill indictment or if the case should be thrown out.

The book talks how a grand theft charge can be moved down to a petit larceny charge through plea-bargaining. William Jones struck a plea bargain by saying he was guilty to all charges except non-capital murder. Punishment must fit the bill in the U. S. criminal justice system. A person who steals a TV isn’t going to jail for life but a person who kills a person may be going to jail for life. The more serious the crime the more time must be spent on gathering evidence to make sure there isn’t a mistake which might cost an innocent person his life.

The main argument against the death penalty is that killing is wrong so know matter who the person is. The other argument is that killers don’t think of the consequences when they act, so the death penalty doesn’t make a person not kill. Another objective is that life in prison should be justice enough; these inmates don’t pose a threat to society anymore so why bother killing them. The Furman v. Georgia case was important because at that time any person who was convicted of killing a person was punishable by death.

Furman accidently killed William Micke and was found guilty, but the Supreme Court upheld the ruling and in doing so outlawed most uses of the death penalty. By having Mary Jones testify it showed how the murder affected the family and that her families’ life will never be the same. Judge Smiley sentenced Daryl Atkins to death and set his date for execution for August 20, 1998. The Supreme Court decided that it was illegal to have a mentally retarded person receive the death penalty.

Prior to the ruling South Carolina still allowed for mentally retarded people to be executed but they hadn’t executed any mentally retarded person after the Penry case. Since Daryl Atkins never had a IQ test prior to 18 they couldn’t use his test to declare if he was mentally retarded or not. The case continued and because of a Brady case infraction Daryl Atkins was sentenced to Life rather than the death penalty. Work Cited Walker, Thomas G. Eligible for Execution: The Story of the Daryl Atkins Case. Washington, D. C. : CQ, 2008. Print.