SCS/HCS/HBs 265 & 369 - This act excludes mentally retarded individuals convicted of murder in the first degree from receiving the death penalty. The act allows a judge or jury to determine the issue of mental retardation by a preponderance of the evidence during the sentencing phase of the capital case, unless the parties agree to pretrial determination of the issue. If a pretrial determination is detrimental to the defendant, the parties may still present the issue during the sentencing stage of the trial.

The act defines mental retardation, in part, as significantly subaverage intellectual functioning with continual extensive related deficits and limitations in two or more adaptive behaviors. The act applies to offenses committed on or after August 28, 2001.

This act is identical to provisions in SS/SCS/SB 267, and similar to SB 192.
VANESSA CALEB