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ANCOR Position Statement: Criminal Justice
Policy:
ANCOR supports the fact that people with and without disabilities
have an equitable and constitutional right to justice and fair treatment within
the criminal justice system. Further, ANCOR unconditionally opposes the death
penalty for persons with mental retardation.
Position:
-
ANCOR supports and encourages efforts that
will strengthen the civil rights of persons with disabilities when they
interface with the criminal justice system.
-
ANCOR joins with its colleagues at American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD -- formerly AAMR) and
ARC in endorsing their joint Positions Statement on Criminal Justice dated
May 28, 2002.
-
ANCOR joins with its colleagues at TASH in
endorsing its Resolution Opposing the Execution of Persons Labeled as Having
Mental Retardation. (December 2001)
Further, ANCOR believes that:
- Persons with mental retardation lack the full level of awareness
necessary to understand the consequences of their actions.
- The disabilities that accompany mental retardation are
directly relevant to the issue of criminal responsibility and to the choice
of punishment for those convicted of crimes because:
- Mental retardation is a substantial disability which impairs
an individual's capacity to fully understand and control his/her actions,
and
- Mental retardation has long been recognized as relevant
to the choice of appropriate punishment for crime.
- The degree of reduction in legal blameworthiness caused
by a defendant's mental retardation renders imposition of the death penalty
unconstitutional because:
- Punishment by death is reserved for those selected on
the basis of their blameworthiness of legal guilt, and
- The death penalty is disproportionate to the degree of
culpability of any defendant with mental retardation.
- The civil rights of persons with disabilities are at jeopardy
of eroding in the United States criminal justice system.
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