Georgia committee advances bill changing how intellectual disability is proved in death-penalty cases

The House Judiciary Committee on (date not specified) advanced House Bill 123 (LC 48 13 78), which would change how Georgia determines whether a defendant has an intellectual disability in capital cases.

Proponents said the bill, authored and presented in committee by Chairman Bill Werkheiser, would lower the standard of proof to a preponderance of the evidence and permit parties to request a pretrial hearing to decide intellectual disability before the guilt phase of a capital trial. "Georgia is the only state in our nation that is executing those with intellectual disabilities," Werkheiser said during his presentation. He described the bill as a way to avoid sending people with intellectual disability to execution.

The bill’s supporters — including the Southern Center for Human Rights, the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities and disability advocates with the Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta — said the changes are narrow but important. Michael Admorand of the Southern Center for Human…