1.   As the law now is written, Kepple said, jurors get to consider both the mentally retarded defendant and the problems of the hypothetical car crash victim.

2.   A new law banning the death penalty for retarded defendants was passed too late to have saved Grell.

3.   Even when mentally retarded defendants are clearly guilty, it is extremely difficult to determine their level of culpability.

4.   He concluded that, to the contrary, the state judgments were supported by a review of various factors making the death penalty particularly inappropriate for retarded defendants.

5.   In addition, mentally retarded defendants most often find it difficult, and sometimes impossible, to participate effectively in their own defense.

6.   In New York, a mentally retarded defendant can be sentenced to life in prison without parole, but not death.

7.   Lawyers who have represented mentally retarded defendants who were executed, as well as the families of those people, said the ruling was bittersweet.

8.   Texas does not have a ban, and while he was governor, the state executed two retarded defendants, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

9.   While mentally retarded defendants may know right from wrong, he said, they are more likely to act on impulse or to be influenced by others.

10.   James Ellis, representing Atkins, said there is a growing concern that mentally retarded defendants might be more likely to face the death penalty.