In Mississippi, lawmakers passed SB 2821, which authorizes the death penalty for the sexual abuse or attempted sexual abuse of a child younger than 12, WDAM 7 reported. The new law is effective July 1. WDAM reports that Rep. Jansen Own said the legislation was the result of efforts by the Trump administration, which is trying to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Kennedy v. Louisiana (2008), which ruled that sentencing a person to death for a crime in which the victim did not die or the victim’s death was not intended, was a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Mississippi is now the seventh state to allow a death sentence for a non-homicide offense. It follows Florida, Tennessee, Idaho, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Alabama.
In a 5 -4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court last week dismissed Alabama’s petition for a writ of certiorari in Hamm v. Smith. The Court dismissed the case as “improvidently granted,” meaning it was not the right vehicle to establish a standard for the courts to analyze multiple IQ scores under Atkins v Virginia (2002). Atkins found that executing people with intellectual disabilities is a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The current standard for determining intellectual disability of defendants is about 70 or below. According to the American Psychological Association, “Hamm v. Smith underscores the critical need for courts to align legal standards with clinical practice by interpreting IQ scores within their scientific limits and giving full weight to adaptive functioning, ensuring that constitutional protections for individuals with intellectual disability are meaningfully upheld.”
Federal prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty for Elias Rodriguez, who is charged with killing a couple at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., last year, the Washington Post reported. Rodriguez is accused of opening fire at a reception at the museum last May, killing 30-year-old Yaron Lischinsky and 26-year-old Sarah Lynn Milgrim. According to court papers, officials reported that Rodriguez fired about 20 shots while calling out, “Free Palestine.”