UNM School of Law Professor James Ellis, who contributed to the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to bar the execution of retarded inmates, will be the keynote speaker at a day-long New Mexico Law Review symposium Saturday.
The one-day conference, "Beyond Atkins: A Symposium on the Implications of Atkins v. Virginia," will focus upon the court's landmark decision in the trial of Atkins v. Virginia, the case Ellis would eventually present and win before the nation's highest court.
Ellis argued against executing Daryl Atkins, a mentally retarded man facing the death penalty for the murder of Eric Nesbitt.
The jury convicted Atkins of capital murder and sentenced him to death. But after a lengthy series of appeals, the Supreme Court agreed to hear his case.
Ellis assisted in preparing the legal brief for the case and delivered the oral argument before the Supreme Court justices.
Ellis' involvement with the question of cruel and unusual punishment of mentally retarded criminals began with another landmark court case, McCarver v. North Carolina. In similar circumstances, the case was slated to appear before the Supreme Court, but legislation was passed that prohibited the execution of an inmate with an IQ below 70 within the state of North Carolina, thereby making any action taken in the case by the Supreme Court moot.
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For Ellis, the road to the Supreme Court began when he worked in a mental health hospital after graduating from law school at the University of California at Berkeley.
"I stayed with it because people with disabilities have asked me to represent them," Ellis told the Daily Lobo in July.
Ellis was out of town when the Daily Lobo called for comment regarding the upcoming symposium.
After spending more than 12 years on similar cases, and having attended more than 100 Supreme Court cases, Ellis said the experience was gratifying.
"Now we have to focus on implementation and procedure, for who is entitled to Atkins v. Virginia," he said in July.
Both of these court decisions have proved instrumental in placing restrictions on the death penalty since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976.
According to Human Rights Watch, a national organization opposed to the death penalty, nearly 300 out of 3,700 death row inmates could be affected by the decision.
"People like professor Ellis are making great strides in restoring justice in the world," said Kay Seok, an associate of Human Rights Watch in New York. "The success that has occurred in these cases and more like them prove that we are making progress against the death penalty."
However, not everyone is enthusiastic with the success Ellis has made in his efforts to provide legal assistance for mentally retarded inmates.
The Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a public interest law organization dedicated to restoring a balance between the rights of crime victims and the criminally accused, feels that the progress Ellis and individuals like him are making is a step in the wrong direction.
According to its Web site, the group's purpose is to assure that people who are guilty of committing crimes receive swift and certain punishment.
In an e-mail from the group, an official said that the findings of the Supreme Court in the Atkins v. Virginia case are anything but just, and that the victim and his family were not taken into consideration when Atkins' sentence was reduced.
According to the organization's Web site, such findings will bring considerable disruption to future death penalty proceedings, and that the courts will now find themselves "inundated with retardation claims."
Other scholars and experts in the field will be speaking at the symposium on the various implications of the Atkins decision including Jeffrey A. Fagan, Columbia Law School; Douglas Mossman, Wright State University School of Medicine; Michael Perlin, New York School of Law; Elizabeth Rappaport, UNM School of Law; Christopher Slobogin, University of Florida Levin College of Law; and Victor L. Streib, Ohio Northern University Pettit College of Law.
The symposium will lead to an April 2003 law review publication on the issues presented.
The conference has a fee of $35 and those interested should contact Susan Tackman at 277-4910 for more information.
