case study report

4) William Alvin Smith: William Alvin Smith robbed and killed the owner of a grocery store in rural Georgia when he was twenty years old. Smith turned himself in to the police and signed a confession. A local jury condemned Smith to death in the electric chair, but in July 1989 a federal judge ordered a new sentencing hearing for Smith on the grounds that he lacked the ability to understand the significance of waiving his rights to remain silent and to have an attorney present. Smith is mentally retarded with the mental capacity of a ten-year-old. Does he deserve the death sentence?