Intellectual disablement may be equated with mental illness for sentencing purposes, enlivening Verdins considerations, but the question will always be whether it has been shown in the particular case that the accused's moral culpability or the significance of deterrence is reduced because of the intellectual disablement. A speculative hypothesis of frontal lobe damage, unsupported by formal testing, is an insufficient basis to establish that offending was attributable to impulsivity caused by brain damage. Psychological reports tendered on pleas must specifically address the connection between any identified condition and the offending.
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