Michael Duane Zack, III v. Florida
1. In light of the medical community's recent consensus that Fetal Alcohol
Syndrome is not only functionally similar to Intellectual Developmental Disorder, but
uniquely identical in both etiology and symptomatology, does it violate the Eighth or
Fourteenth Amendment for a state court to foreclose all meaningful review of a
defendant's claim that he is entitled to exemption from execution under Hail v.
Florida's requirement that state courts deciding whether to apply the protections of
Atkins v. Virginia must be guided by the views of the medical community?
2. Because "a jury that must choose between life imprisonment and capital
punishment can do little more -- and must do nothing less -- than express the
conscience of the community on the ultimate question of life or death[,]" Witherspoon
v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 519 (1968), does the Eighth Amendment bar the execution
of a defendant who was not sentenced to death by a unanimous jury?
Does the Eighth or Fourteenth Amendment bar the execution of a defendant with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome who was not sentenced to death by a unanimous jury?