CONTACT: Quentin Smith, 804-1242 Media Contact: Laurie Mellas-Ramirez , 277-5915

Sept. 25, 2002 UNM HOSTS NEW MEXICO LAW REVIEW SYMPOSIUM EXAMINING DEATH PENALTY FOR MENTALLY RETARDED/ ILL AND JUVENILES University of New Mexico Professor of Law James Ellis will be the keynote speaker at a daylong New Mexico Law Review symposium examining the effects of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on executing the mentally retarded. The UNM School of Law hosts the event, set for Saturday, Oct. 19. Representing Darryl Atkins in the case Atkins v. Virginia, Ellis argued against executing the retarded before the nation's highest court last February. The Supreme Court held that capital punishment of those with mental retardation was cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. "The result of this case will have enormous significance in the field of mental retardation, and it will implicate death penalty issues with respect to juveniles and those with mental illness as well," said Quentin Smith, associate symposium editor for the New Mexico Law Review. The one-day conference titled "Beyond Atkins: A Symposium on the Implications of Atkins v. Virginia" will lead to an April 2003 law review publication on the issue. This will be the first law review published on the implications of the Atkins decision. Ellis is a graduate of Occidental College and University of California-Berkeley School of Law. He has served as law reporter for the A.B.A. Criminal Justice Standards Project and president of the American Association on Mental Retardation. He has filed briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court in twelve cases. Other renowned scholars and experts in the field will be speaking at the conference on the various implications of the Atkins decision including Jeffrey A. Fagan, Columbia Law School; Douglas Mossman, Wright State University School of Medicine; Michael Perlin, New York School of Law; Elizabeth Rapaport, UNM School of Law; Christopher Slobogin, University of Florida Levin College of Law; and Victor L. Streib, Ohio Northern University Pettit College of Law. Slobogin is co-author of a casebook and a treatise on mental health law and has published articles on the topic in many top law reviews. Streib specializes in violent crime and the death penalty. He is author of the recently published book "Death Penalty in a Nutshell" (Eagan, MN: West Group). The conference fee of $35 includes lunch and the New Mexico MCLE Board has approved the symposium for 6.4 general credits. For more information, call Susan Tackman, 277-4910. ###

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