Davis v. Kelley

Don Davis was convicted of capital murder in 1992, and sentenced to death. On April 1, 2002, after exhausting his state-court remedies, he filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas. On June 20, 2002, while his petition was pending, the Supreme Court decided Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304, 122 S.Ct. 2242, 153 L.Ed.2d 335 (2002), which held that executing the intellectually disabled 2 is “cruel and unusual punishment” and therefore violates the Eighth Amendment. Davis did not raise any claims based on Atkins before the…