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The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed the case of North Carolina death row inmate Ernest McCarver (see march 26 and april 19), which they had taken to decide the issue of whether it is cruel and unusual to execute inmates with mental retardation. Instead, the Court will hear the case of Daryl Atkins, a Virginia death row inmate with mental retardation.After the Justices had agreed to review McCarver's case, North Carolina passed a bill prohibiting the execution of the mentally retarded, rendering McCarver's case moot. In 1989, the Supreme Court held that executing persons with mental retardation was not a violation of the Eighth Amendment because a "national consensus" had not developed against executing those with mental retardation. At the time, only two states prohibited such executions. Since then, 16 more states and the federal government have enacted laws prohibiting the execution of the mentally retarded.