A death sentence may not be imposed on intellectually disabled offenders, but the states can define what it means to be intellectually disabled. Decided June 20, 2002 (argued February 20, 2002). Opinion of the Court: John Paul Stevens → go there Dissenting: Rehnquist, Scalia. Applied: the Eighth Amendment → go there Topic: Capital punishment. Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002), is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 6–3 that executing people with intellectual disabilities violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishments, but that states can define who has an intellectual disability. At the time Atkins was decided, 18 of the 38 death penalty states exempted mentally disabled offenders from the death penalty. Wiki link