Commonwealth, Aplt v. Hackett, R.

I join Parts I, 11(A), and III of the Majority Opinion. The Court, in my judgment, properly reverses the PCRA1 court’s vacatur of appellee’s death sentence on grounds that he is mentally retarded, and thus is death-ineligible under Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304, 122 S.Ct. 2242, 153 L.Ed.2d 335 (2002), which held that murderers proven to be “mentally retarded” cannot receive the ultimate penalty. The second claim (Part 11(B)) asks the Court to consider a more basic question posed by cases such as this: whether the construct and approach developed for considering Atkins claims generally…