Michael Clemente ’16 Received 2015 Burton Award for Distinguished Legal Writing

Yale Law School student Michael Clemente ’16 received a 2015 Burton Award for Distinguished Legal Writing for his paper titled “A Reassessment of Common Law Protections for ‘Idiots.’” His Note will be published in the Yale Law Journal, Volume 124 (Issue 8).

Clemente’s paper explores the legal protection prohibiting execution for those with intellectual disabilities in history and today. When the Eighth Amendment was ratified, common law protections categorically forbade the execution of “idiots.” On two occasions, the Supreme Court considered whether these protections proscribe executing people with intellectual disabilities; however, the Court concluded that idiocy protections shielded only the “profoundly or severely mentally retarded.” Clemente’s Note argues that the Court’s historical analysis of idiocy protections was unduly narrow. He reassesses common law insanity protections for idiots and finds strong evidence that these protections included people with a relatively wide range of intellectual disabilities. Based on this new historical account, the Note argues that there are people with intellectual disabilities on death row today who likely would have been protected from execution in 1791.

The Burton Awards honor law school student writers and writers at law firms each year. This honor for students is awarded to the authors of legal articles that demonstrate creativity, knowledge, and know-how. The awards ceremony will be held on June 15 at the Library of Congress.