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Oppositely valenced forces may be at work to influence rates of placement of children into mental retardation programs. On one hand, educational policies regarding intellectual disability and concerns about overrepresentation of minorities in special education may contribute to lower placement rates; on the other hand, more difficult intelligence test norms may be a countervailing force, increasing placement rates. An analysis of longitudinal data on state and national level placement rates reveals that a lengthy and steep 12-year decline in students receiving mental retardation services reversed shortly after the introduction of the WISC-III in 1991. This phenomenon has relevance for death-penalty cases, because this historical pattern may affect the ability to establish whether an adult meets the developmental period onset criterion for mental retardation.

The Supreme Court recently decided that the death penalty as it applies to persons with mental retardation is not a violation of constitutional protection from cruel and unusual punishment as long as juries consider the convicted person's disabilities during trial proceedings. Advocates for persons with mental retardation have argued that because their disability reduces culpability in capital offenses, the death penalty is always inappropriate. In this paper we argued that the latter position makes unwarranted categorical assumptions about mental retardation, fails to consider the individualized and situation-specific determinants of culpability for a capital offense, and undermines the very assumptions required to restore respect and value for citizens with mental retardation as participants in society.

Psychological test obstacles to gaining the acceptance of a diagnosis of mental retardation in criminal defendants was described, and the use of the Revised Beta intelligence test with defendants who may be retarded was questioned. A possible modification of the adaptive behavior criterion for criminal defendants was suggested, and some thoughts on the appropriateness of the death penalty for persons with mental retardation were offered.