Hamm v. Smith · ¶121

In Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U. S. 304 (2002), this Court held that the Eighth Amendment forbids the execution of defendants whom it described, using the standard terminology of the time, as “mentally retarded.” Atkins did not define that term for Eighth Amendment purposes, and our subsequent decisions on the issue have spawned doctrinal ambiguity and numerous unanswered questions. See, e. g., Hall v. Florida, 572 U. S. 701, 740–742 (2014) (Alito, J., dissenting); Moore v. Texas, 581 U. S. 1, 28–33 (2017) (Roberts, C. J., dissenting); Bowling v. Commonwealth, 163 S. W. 3d 361, 369, 375 (Ky. 2005) (enumerating several basic questions that Atkins generated but left unresolved).

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