Atkins court decision added: Herring v Florida (2009)

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Atkins court decision added: Herring v Florida (2009)

Herring v Florida (2009) is now listed in the Court Decisions blog sidebar, courtesy of Dr. Tom Oakland (listed under Professional Expert section of blog).

According to Tom, this was a good decision. According to Tom, the following issues were notable:

• The decision rested heavily on the use of the DSM rather than the State's more restrictive definition of M/ID.

• Herring, the petitioner, had at least 4 IQs above 70. This will seemingly gave credence to the use of the Flynn Effect. After the FE adjustment, the IQs were above 70.
  

The court correctly viewed the assessment of adaptive behaviours displayed in prison to be inappropriate, given the setting's restrictiveness.