Briseño Factors

In the case of Atkins v. Virginia, Daryl Renard Atkins is accused of the kidnapping, robbery, and murder of Eric Michael Nesbitt. Atkins was also charged with use of a firearm while committing each of these offenses ("FindLaw's United States Supreme Court case and opinions.”, 2017). Atkins was convicted of capital murder and related crimes, by a Virginia jury and sentenced to death, but his case was appealed to the Virginia Supreme Courts, on the grounds that it is unlawful to put to death a person who has intellectual disabilities (Mental Retardation). Virginia Supreme Courts upheld the decision of the Virginia courts

Many people may say one is a retard without knowing the truth behind the actual word. Intellectual Disability, also known as Mental Retardation, is a very serious psychological disorder that few are faced with for life. Intellectual Disability is characterized by a below-average level of intelligence (a mental ability) that lacks skills necessary for daily living. An IQ is the standard way to measure the level of intelligence one may have. Roughly 95% of humans have the IQ between 70 and 130. (Meyers and DeWall, 2014). The other five percent are either absolute genius or intellectually disabled. Being intellectually disabled can be caused in many ways

This paper discusses the pros and cons of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-III). First, important definitional, theoretical issues, including the nature of intelligence, a brief history, and pros and cons are discussed. Next, the development, reliability, validity, and assets and limitations of the WAIS-III are examined. This is followed by discussion of the meaning of IQ scores, use of successive level interpretation and cautions and guidelines for administration. Last, subtests, assessing special population groups, short forms, profile forms, and what a

Borderline Intellectual Functioning, also referred to as BIF, is a categorization of intelligence for individuals who are below average intelligence, but do not have an intellectual development disorder. Numerically, individuals with IQ’s between 71 ad 85 are fall into the BIF categorization. Being the middle categorization between having a disability and having average intelligence most people do not know about BIF, which leads to many negative connotations and false representations in popular media. However, unlike other portrayals of BIF, the oscar-winning film, Forrest Gump directed by Robert Zemeckis, did a fairly decent job in many aspects that characterize

While appealing to the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, the petitioner argued, “that the trial court erred in failing to disregard the jury’s answer to the mental-retardation special issue and in denying the appellant’s motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict.” 270 S.W3d 13 (Tex. Cr. App. 2010). The petitioner argued that “because he introduced expert witnesses to demonstrate mental retardation and the State did not introduce its own expert witnesses in rebuttal, the trial court should have disregarded the jury’s answer to the mental-retardation special issue or granted his motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict.” 270 S.W.3d 13 (Tex. Cr. App. 2010). The Texas court found that the burden of proof to determine intellectual disability fell to the petitioner and that there was “no authority,

Whilst it is understood that this inaccuracy ranges by 4 points from the test subjects score, Simon Whitaker argues that as IQ tests were designed based on average intelligence rather than every ability, the inaccuracy of the test scores for those with a lower IQ is even higher, stating that the score can be as imprecise as 13 points either way (add ref). this of course if of importance as 13 points could mean the difference between an individual being diagnosed as having a learning disability or considered as having a low IQ, and vice

Fact: Atkins is a mentally retarded criminal who killed someone and was sentenced to death. this was cruel and unusual punishment which goes against the 8th amendment, at the time his IQ was 59.

When sentencing an offender for a crime, the punishment depends on what the law is attempting to accomplish. The punishment can either be based on incapacitation, retribution, rehabilitation, deterrence, or restorative. Depending on the crime, the punishment can accomplish either one of several of them. However, when it comes to the death penalty it can be quite debatable and there are several criminal cases that came to the United States supreme court due to potential policies being violated that would prevent the offender from getting a proper conviction. One US Supreme Court case that had an issue in sentencing a defendant is Atkins v. Virginia. This case of Atkins v. Virginia (2002) is significant because it had to do with sentencing a defendant to death but was called for an appeal due to the defendant being intellectually disabled. The court case also added that executing individuals who are intellectually disabled is unconstitutional within the eighth amendment that protects against cruel and unusual punishment. When it comes to mental retardation it can have effects on the punishment and corrections system due to the level of their mental competence and how well a defendant who does have disabilities can understand the law. To better understand how mental retardation within the punishment and corrections system can influence the way they work the following should be examined and analyzed. First, the nature of the USSC case must be examined and explain why the supreme

The lower court focused on the factors of Briseno (1992) which were applied without the presence of a doctor in the moment of the recitation, which was incorrect. Also, the CCA did not applied the standard error of measurement in the IQ test, which under Hall v. Florida needs to be apply if the IQ score is between 69 and 79. If the test score is between the IQ test ranges, the person(s) will be qualify as intellectually disable. In addition, the Court sustain that is necessary to view and get support from other medical guides that are recent to prove the defendant is intellectually disable, instead to convict someone just by looking to a test score and old guides. For the reason that, the court declared that the CCA fail to applied current medical guidance and the decision that the court made was a violation of the Eight

Cryer et al. (2014) argue that insanity defense shouldn't be confused with defendant's incompetency. This is because individuals who are incompetent in a court of law are not able to stand their trial. For this reason, any incompetent defendant is held in a mental institution up to the period they are considered to participate or make informed decisions in the court of law's proceedings. Additionally, insanity defense that is perceived to be incompetence is separated from issues such as mental retardation. For example, a ruling that was carried out by the United States Supreme Court in 2002, Atkins v. Virginia argue that the effect of the defendants who are mentally retarded comprise of unusual and cruel punishment. This is not prohibited

States are not limited to adopting the latests definitions of intellectual disability that have been published by certain organizations. Atkins v. Virginia, granted States the freedom to define intellectual disability within certain limits based on their own laws. The courts have given legislators the tasks to determine the definition of medical terms that have a significance to legal situations. In the precedent decided in Atkins v. Virginia, it was acknowledged that it's still difficult to determine if and which offenders of the law have intellectual disabilities because the case only extended its rule to a certain extent of offenders. Also, the court noticed the definitions of intellectual disabilities varied from the state to actual clinical

The researchers most likely used confirmation bias when looking at the test results. If a child in the study were shown to be resilient and tested higher than what they expected on the IQ test, the researchers were more likely exclude to them in the results. They did that because the score would go against what the researchers were trying to prove, therefore the researcher also exhibited base rate neglect on their part. The IQ test is designed to test intellect, but what if the child has a cultural- familial disability? That would affect the IQ test in a similar way as an organic disability. The only difference is that with a cultural disability; it comes from the home life, whereas the organic disability could be caused by the

Intelligence tests are inaccurate to measures true ability of a person because genes affect how a person responds to their surroundings, the tests cannot measure the person biological makeup or his true potential for being “smart”.

Although Texas may argue that the standards set forth by the Briseño Factors meet the requirements set by the Supreme Court in Atkins v. Virginia and that the Court’s findings in Hall v. Florida may not seem to directly contradict the standards set forth by the Briseño Factors, I believe that the “outdated” standard used by Texas to measure the intellectual disability of an individual is in fact unconstitutional. The Briseño Factors may at first glance appear to fulfill the requirements of the Atkins v. Virginia ruling, however, “the Briseño factors, are not recognized by a single clinical or scientific body,” because there is no number assigned to the level of disability demonstrated by the individual, the factors give rise to the possible

However, the authors went on to say that presently, 80% of states use identification definitions that include creativity, approximately 70% use definitions that include artistic abilities, and slightly more than half of states use definitions that include leadership abilities (175). Even with this recent recognition of other abilities, IQ test scores are still being used as a determining factor in most American schools.