opinion in Atkins v. Virginia
E139206
The opinion in Atkins v. Virginia is a landmark 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision, authored by Justice John Paul Stevens, that held executing individuals with intellectual disabilities violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| opinion in Atkins v. Virginia canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1217787 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: opinion in Atkins v. Virginia Context triple: [John Paul Stevens, notableWork, opinion in Atkins v. Virginia]
-
A.
majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick
The majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick is the 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision, authored by Justice Byron White, that upheld the constitutionality of a Georgia law criminalizing consensual homosexual sodomy, later overturned by Lawrence v. Texas.
-
B.
Boynton v. Virginia
Boynton v. Virginia was a 1960 U.S. Supreme Court decision that extended federal prohibitions against racial discrimination in interstate bus terminals, helping lay the legal groundwork for the Freedom Rides.
-
C.
Supreme Court of Virginia v. Friedman
Supreme Court of Virginia v. Friedman is a 1988 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down Virginia’s residency requirement for bar admission on motion as a violation of the Privileges and Immunities Clause.
-
D.
Buck v. Bell opinion
The Buck v. Bell opinion is a 1927 U.S. Supreme Court decision, authored by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., that notoriously upheld the constitutionality of compulsory sterilization laws and became a symbol of the excesses of the American eugenics movement.
-
E.
opinion in Ginzburg v. United States
The opinion in Ginzburg v. United States is a U.S. Supreme Court decision authored by Justice Potter Stewart that addressed the standards for determining obscenity in mailed publications.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: opinion in Atkins v. Virginia Target entity description: The opinion in Atkins v. Virginia is a landmark 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision, authored by Justice John Paul Stevens, that held executing individuals with intellectual disabilities violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
-
A.
majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick
The majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick is the 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision, authored by Justice Byron White, that upheld the constitutionality of a Georgia law criminalizing consensual homosexual sodomy, later overturned by Lawrence v. Texas.
-
B.
Boynton v. Virginia
Boynton v. Virginia was a 1960 U.S. Supreme Court decision that extended federal prohibitions against racial discrimination in interstate bus terminals, helping lay the legal groundwork for the Freedom Rides.
-
C.
Supreme Court of Virginia v. Friedman
Supreme Court of Virginia v. Friedman is a 1988 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down Virginia’s residency requirement for bar admission on motion as a violation of the Privileges and Immunities Clause.
-
D.
Buck v. Bell opinion
The Buck v. Bell opinion is a 1927 U.S. Supreme Court decision, authored by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., that notoriously upheld the constitutionality of compulsory sterilization laws and became a symbol of the excesses of the American eugenics movement.
-
E.
opinion in Ginzburg v. United States
The opinion in Ginzburg v. United States is a U.S. Supreme Court decision authored by Justice Potter Stewart that addressed the standards for determining obscenity in mailed publications.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Eighth Amendment decision
ⓘ
United States Supreme Court majority opinion ⓘ legal opinion ⓘ |
| appliesTo | defendants with intellectual disabilities in capital cases ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
United States constitutional law
ⓘ
criminal procedure ⓘ |
| author | John Paul Stevens ⓘ |
| citation |
Atkins v. Virginia
ⓘ
surface form:
Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002)
|
| constitutionalClauseInterpreted | prohibition on cruel and unusual punishments ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvisionInterpreted | Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| dateDecided | June 20, 2002 ⓘ |
| defendant | Daryl Renard Atkins ⓘ |
| dissentingJustices |
Antonin Scalia
ⓘ
Clarence Thomas ⓘ William H. Rehnquist ⓘ |
| effect | prohibited execution of individuals with intellectual disabilities nationwide ⓘ |
| holding | Executing individuals with intellectual disabilities violates the Eighth Amendment ⓘ |
| impact | required states to develop procedures to determine intellectual disability in capital cases ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| landmarkStatus | landmark decision on the death penalty ⓘ |
| legalIssue | constitutionality of executing individuals with intellectual disabilities ⓘ |
| legalSubject |
Eighth Amendment jurisprudence
ⓘ
capital punishment ⓘ intellectual disability and criminal law ⓘ |
| majorityJustices |
Anthony M. Kennedy
ⓘ
David H. Souter ⓘ John Paul Stevens ⓘ Ruth Bader Ginsburg ⓘ Sandra Day O’Connor ⓘ Stephen G. Breyer ⓘ |
| overruledPrecedent | Penry v. Lynaugh ⓘ |
| overruledPrecedentCitation | Penry v. Lynaugh, 492 U.S. 302 (1989) ⓘ |
| partOf | Atkins v. Virginia ⓘ |
| precedentialValue |
binding precedent on all lower federal courts
ⓘ
binding precedent on state courts on federal constitutional issues ⓘ |
| reasoningConcept |
evolving standards of decency
ⓘ
national consensus against executing individuals with intellectual disabilities ⓘ |
| relatedCase |
Hall v. Florida
ⓘ
Moore v. Texas ⓘ Roper v. Simmons ⓘ |
| remand | case remanded to Virginia courts for further proceedings ⓘ |
| resultForDefendant | death sentence vacated ⓘ |
| stateParty |
Virginia
ⓘ
surface form:
Commonwealth of Virginia
|
| typeOfCase |
constitutional law case
ⓘ
criminal law case ⓘ |
| yearDecided | 2002 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: opinion in Atkins v. Virginia Description of subject: The opinion in Atkins v. Virginia is a landmark 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision, authored by Justice John Paul Stevens, that held executing individuals with intellectual disabilities violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.