Whether Georgia's requirement that a capital defendant prove intellectual disability beyond a reasonable doubt violates the Eighth Amendment

QUESTIONS PRESENTED Georgia is the only state in the Union that requires a capital defendant to prove intellectual disability (formerly called mental retardation) by a “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard. Discovery in the instant federal habeas proceeding established that in the thirty years during which Georgia has maintained this unique burden of proof, not a single capital defendant has been able to establish intellectual disability in a contested case. This case presents the following question: Whether this Court’s unanimous holding in Cooper v. Oklahoma, 517 U.S. 348 (1996), clearly established that Georgia could not impose the burden of requiring proof of intellectual disability beyond a reasonable doubt, particularly when state supreme courts in Indiana, Tennessee, and other states recognized that Cooper would not allow their states to require a defendant to prove intellectual disability even by a lower standard of clear and convincing evidence. ii STATEMENT OF RELATED CASES Georgia Criminal Proceedings State v. Raulerson, No. CR94-2599-C (Ga. Super. Ct.) (state trial court proceeding) Raulerson v. State, Nos. S95P1166, S97P1207 (Ga. Oct. 6, 1997) (Georgia Supreme Court decision on direct appeal) Raulerson v. Georgia, No. 97-8385 (U.S. May 18, 1998) (order denying a petition for a writ of certiorari) Georgia Post-Conviction Proceedings Raulerson v. Head, No. 98-V-706 (Ga. Super. Ct. Mar. 22, 2004) (order in state post-conviction proceeding)) Raulerson v. Head, No. S04E1707 (Ga. Jan. 11, 2005) (order denying appeal from state post-conviction proceeding) Federal Habeas Proceedings Raulerson v. Warden, No. 5:05-ev-00057-JRH (S.D. Ga. June 9, 2008) (order denying federal habeas relief) Raulerson v. Warden, No. 14-14038 (June 28, 11th Cir. 2019) (order affirming denial of habeas relief)