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5-4-618. Defendants with intellectual disabilities.
Arkansas Code — all titles (historical 2020) · legal_authorities
5-4-618. Defendants with intellectual disabilities.
(a)(1) As used in this section, “intellectual disabilities” means:
(A) Significantly below-average general intellectual functioning accompanied by a significant deficit or impairment in adaptive functioning manifest in the developmental period, but no later than eighteen (18) years of age; and
(B) A deficit in adaptive behavior.
(2) There is a rebuttable presumption of intellectual disabilities when a defendant has an intelligence quotient of sixty-five (65) or below.
(b) No defendant with intellectual disabilities at the time of committing capital murder shall be sentenced to death.
(c) The defendant has the burden of proving intellectual disabilities at the time of committing the offense by a preponderance of the evidence.
(d)(1) A defendant on trial for capital murder shall raise the special sentencing provision of intellectual disabilities by motion prior to trial.
(2)(A) Prior to trial, the court shall determine if the defendant has an intellectual disability.
(B)(i) If the court determines that the defendant does not have an intellectual disability, the defendant may raise the question of an intellectual disability to the jury for determination de novo during the sentencing phase of the trial.
(ii) At the time the jury retires to decide mitigating and aggravating circumstances, the jury shall be given a special verdict form on an intellectual disability.
(iii) If the jury unanimously determines that the defendant had an intellectual disability at the time of the commission of capital murder, then the defendant will automatically be sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole.
(C) If the court determines that the defendant has an intellectual disability, then:
(i) The jur
Source: Arkansas Code — historical release 78 (November 6, 2020) · 5-4-618
Stored review status: Historical 2020-11-06 source release; later amendments not reconciled; machine-extracted, not independently legally reviewed; source heading status: text_in_historical_source. A text match is a research starting point; applicability is not established.
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Stable record: arkansas_code:legal_authorities:5-4-618
Source file: gov.ar.code.title.05.odt
Pages: Not recorded – Not recorded
Passage SHA-256: 7bc83c92afacc88cefd680291c52db5b7231283c7f23742a3f0db8d5f0442d13
Source location: content.xml paragraph 6670
Stored source content
5-4-618. Defendants with intellectual disabilities.
(a)(1) As used in this section, “intellectual disabilities” means:
(A) Significantly below-average general intellectual functioning accompanied by a significant deficit or impairment in adaptive functioning manifest in the developmental period, but no later than eighteen (18) years of age; and
(B) A deficit in adaptive behavior.
(2) There is a rebuttable presumption of intellectual disabilities when a defendant has an intelligence quotient of sixty-five (65) or below.
(b) No defendant with intellectual disabilities at the time of committing capital murder shall be sentenced to death.
(c) The defendant has the burden of proving intellectual disabilities at the time of committing the offense by a preponderance of the evidence.
(d)(1) A defendant on trial for capital murder shall raise the special sentencing provision of intellectual disabilities by motion prior to trial.
(2)(A) Prior to trial, the court shall determine if the defendant has an intellectual disability.
(B)(i) If the court determines that the defendant does not have an intellectual disability, the defendant may raise the question of an intellectual disability to the jury for determination de novo during the sentencing phase of the trial.
(ii) At the time the jury retires to decide mitigating and aggravating circumstances, the jury shall be given a special verdict form on an intellectual disability.
(iii) If the jury unanimously determines that the defendant had an intellectual disability at the time of the commission of capital murder, then the defendant will automatically be sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole.
(C) If the court determines that the defendant has an intellectual disability, then:
(i) The jury is not “death qualified”; and
(ii) The jury shall sentence the defendant to life imprisonment without possibility of parole upon conviction.
(e) However, this section is not deemed to:
(1) Require unanimity for consideration of any mitigating circumstance; or
(2) Supersede any suggested mitigating circumstance regarding mental defect or disease currently found in § 5-4-605.
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Arkansas Code — all titles (historical 2020) · legal_authorities
5-4-605. Mitigating circumstances.
A mitigating circumstance includes, but is not limited to, the following:
(1) The capital murder was committed while the defendant was under extreme mental or emotional disturbance;
(2) The capital murder was committed while the defendant was acting under an unusual pressure or influence or under the domination of another person;
(3) The capital murder was committed while the capacity of the defendant to appreciate the wrongfulness of his or her conduct or to conform his or her conduct to the requirements of law was impaired as a result of mental disease or defect, intoxication, or drug abuse;
(4) The youth of the defendant at the time of the commission of the capital murder;
(5) The capital murder was committed by another person and the defendant was an accomplice and his or her participation was relatively minor; or
(6) The defendant has no significant history of prior criminal activity.
Source: Arkansas Code — historical release 78 (November 6, 2020) · 5-4-605
Stored review status: Historical 2020-11-06 source release; later amendments not reconciled; machine-extracted, not independently legally reviewed; source heading status: text_in_historical_source. The source passage cites 5-4-605. This identifies an authority to review, not proof of applicability.