Instead of the usual 5-4 split, the U.S. Supreme Court – in a 6-3 decision – declared it unconstitutional to execute mentally retarded people in the United States. Prior to this ruling, the U.S. was among a handful of “rogue nations” in the world executing the mentally retarded. On February 19, 1999, Ohio executed the brain-damaged and mentally retarded Wilford Berry after he refused to defend himself. Attorney General Betty Montgomery fought hard to kill the so-called “volunteer” despite charges by Amnesty International and other human rights groups that it violated international law. Death penalty opponents predict that the U.S. policy of killing the mentally ill and juveniles are the next to fall. The U.S. is the only Western industrial democracy that practices the death penalty.