Staff Report
James Ellis is quickly becoming one of the most recognized and decorated lawyers in the nation.
Ellis, a UNM law professor, is best known for his groundbreaking work to ban executions of the mentally retarded. The New Mexico Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Association of Retarded Citizens of New Mexico, also known as ARC, and his alma mater, Occidental College, honored him last month for his efforts.
Ellis successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in February that executing mentally retarded individuals violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
The Supreme Court had ruled in 1989 that those types of executions were constitutional.
Ellis represented death-row inmate Daryl Atkins in the landmark case Atkins v. Virginia. Atkins was convicted of abduction, armed robbery and capital murder. Ellis relied on expert testimony of a psychologist to establish that Atkins had a well-below average IQ of 59 and as a result did not have the capacity to function independently or be held accountable for his actions.
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The June Supreme Court decision was "the culmination of 30 years of his work on behalf of the mentally retarded and mentally ill persons in the civil and criminal justice systems," according to the National Law Journal.
According to a University news release, it was Ellis' dedication to the case that earned the praise he received from the three organizations last month.
The ARC honored him with its President's Award, an annual honor that recognizes those in the community "who go the extra mile in serving the needs of people with developmental disabilities," according to the news release.
The New Mexico Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers also honored Ellis with its Champion of Life award.
"Professor Ellis won a seminal victory defying overwhelming odds and changing the face of death at a national level," association member Richard Winterbottom said in the news release.
While Ellis was working on an American Bar Association project in the 1980s to revise criminal standards for the mentally ill, the country's defense bar association took notice and contacted him for help with its cases.
The mentally retarded clients he has served "were individuals whose understanding was, in fact, so limited that it was inconceivable they deserved death," Ellis said.
His dedication to changing the nation's laws on the subject earned him the National Law Journal's Lawyer of the Year award in January.
Ellis, a former president of the American Association on Mental Retardation, has filed briefs in 12 other U.S. Supreme Court cases on behalf of mentally retarded prison inmates facing the death penalty.
At UNM since 1976, Ellis teaches constitutional rights, introduction to constitutional law, mental health and retardation law.
