The Justice Project
The Tennessean
Guest Commentary
By Bill Redick
Bill Redick is Director of The Justice Project's Tennessee Campaign.
September 30, 2006 -- Anglo-American law and common sense have recognized for centuries that mentally impaired criminal offenders are less culpable than those oriented in reality and otherwise in control of their mental faculties. Since the mentally impaired are less culpable, they are not appropriate candidates for the death penalty, reserved under the law for the worst offenders.
Tennessee apparently has a special penchant, however, for reserving the death penalty for the mentally ill, rather than excluding them from it.
The U.S. Supreme Court has categorically prohibited the execution of the mentally retarded due to their organically limited mentality. The high court also has excluded juveniles from the death penalty due to their relatively undeveloped mentality. The court has specifically recognized that defendants with "emotional and mental problems" may be considered "less culpable" and that mental impairment is a factor that mitigates against, not in favor of, the imposition of a sentence of death.
A Gallup Poll taken in 2002 found that 75% of those surveyed opposed the execution of the mentally ill, while only 19% supported it. In August 2001, the American Psychological Association called for a moratorium on the death penalty until it could be shown that mentally ill and retarded inmates would not be executed. In December 2004, the American Psychiatric Association passed a resolution calling for an end to the execution of inmates who are significantly impaired mentally. In August 2006, the American Bar Association passed essentially the same resolution. The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and The National Mental Health Association have passed similar resolutions.
Robert Coe and Sedley Alley, the only two inmates Tennessee has executed in the past 46 years, were both seriously mentally ill. April 19, 2000, Tennessee executed Coe, who suffered delusions and hallucinations. He had numerous mental disorders including brain damage, schizophrenia, a dissociative identity disorder, an anxiety disorder and other disorders.
May 17, 2006, Tennessee executed Sedley Alley. He suffered a combination of brain damage, evolving from childhood epilepsy, and dissociative and post-traumatic stress disorders, evolving from traumatic events in his childhood, the combination of which caused gaps in his awareness and limited his ability to control his behavior.
Had it not been for a late stay of execution by the federal appeals court Daryl Holton would have been executed this past month. Holton suffers complex post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression, which has caused mental health professionals to conclude that he is unable to advise and consult rationally with his attorneys. The federal courts entered the stay after the state courts had refused to give Holton a hearing on his competency.
Greg Thompson and Paul Reid are approaching execution dates and are both seriously mentally ill. Litigation is pending in federal court to determine their competency after the state courts refused to hold hearings.
Greg Thompson is floridly psychotic, suffering hallucinations and delusions that, for example, he "built the space shuttle," "the earth has been conquered, and I'm the only woman left," and his lawyer is the Grand Master of the Ku Klux Klan. He expects to be "discharged" from death row to go to "live in Hawaii." He also suffers organic brain damage as the result of numerous head injuries.
Paul Reid suffers acute temporal lobe brain dysfunction, which has produced a chronic, schizophrenic-like psychosis. He believes he is under the control of a government-directed surveillance and influence that guides his daily activities and decisions, including those regarding his legal options. He believes this force also controls his lawyers and the courts.
Particularly unseemly is the fact that the state attorney general contends in the state courts, which refused to give Reid a hearing on his competency, that he is competent and should be executed but — in the face of an impending competency hearing subsequently ordered by the federal courts — have conceded that he is incompetent.
Many inmates on Tennessee's death row are seriously mentally ill. The law requires that the death penalty be reserved for the worst offenders, but contrary to the legal, professional and public mandate, the most impaired offenders, not the worst offenders, are the ones who have been and apparently will be executed.
The Tennessean
Guest Commentary
By Bill Redick
Bill Redick is Director of The Justice Project's Tennessee Campaign.
September 30, 2006 -- Anglo-American law and common sense have recognized for centuries that mentally impaired criminal offenders are less culpable than those oriented in reality and otherwise in control of their mental faculties. Since the mentally impaired are less culpable, they are not appropriate candidates for the death penalty, reserved under the law for the worst offenders.
Tennessee apparently has a special penchant, however, for reserving the death penalty for the mentally ill, rather than excluding them from it.
The U.S. Supreme Court has categorically prohibited the execution of the mentally retarded due to their organically limited mentality. The high court also has excluded juveniles from the death penalty due to their relatively undeveloped mentality. The court has specifically recognized that defendants with "emotional and mental problems" may be considered "less culpable" and that mental impairment is a factor that mitigates against, not in favor of, the imposition of a sentence of death.
A Gallup Poll taken in 2002 found that 75% of those surveyed opposed the execution of the mentally ill, while only 19% supported it. In August 2001, the American Psychological Association called for a moratorium on the death penalty until it could be shown that mentally ill and retarded inmates would not be executed. In December 2004, the American Psychiatric Association passed a resolution calling for an end to the execution of inmates who are significantly impaired mentally. In August 2006, the American Bar Association passed essentially the same resolution. The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and The National Mental Health Association have passed similar resolutions.
Robert Coe and Sedley Alley, the only two inmates Tennessee has executed in the past 46 years, were both seriously mentally ill. April 19, 2000, Tennessee executed Coe, who suffered delusions and hallucinations. He had numerous mental disorders including brain damage, schizophrenia, a dissociative identity disorder, an anxiety disorder and other disorders.
May 17, 2006, Tennessee executed Sedley Alley. He suffered a combination of brain damage, evolving from childhood epilepsy, and dissociative and post-traumatic stress disorders, evolving from traumatic events in his childhood, the combination of which caused gaps in his awareness and limited his ability to control his behavior.
Had it not been for a late stay of execution by the federal appeals court Daryl Holton would have been executed this past month. Holton suffers complex post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression, which has caused mental health professionals to conclude that he is unable to advise and consult rationally with his attorneys. The federal courts entered the stay after the state courts had refused to give Holton a hearing on his competency.
Greg Thompson and Paul Reid are approaching execution dates and are both seriously mentally ill. Litigation is pending in federal court to determine their competency after the state courts refused to hold hearings.
Greg Thompson is floridly psychotic, suffering hallucinations and delusions that, for example, he "built the space shuttle," "the earth has been conquered, and I'm the only woman left," and his lawyer is the Grand Master of the Ku Klux Klan. He expects to be "discharged" from death row to go to "live in Hawaii." He also suffers organic brain damage as the result of numerous head injuries.
Paul Reid suffers acute temporal lobe brain dysfunction, which has produced a chronic, schizophrenic-like psychosis. He believes he is under the control of a government-directed surveillance and influence that guides his daily activities and decisions, including those regarding his legal options. He believes this force also controls his lawyers and the courts.
Particularly unseemly is the fact that the state attorney general contends in the state courts, which refused to give Reid a hearing on his competency, that he is competent and should be executed but — in the face of an impending competency hearing subsequently ordered by the federal courts — have conceded that he is incompetent.
Many inmates on Tennessee's death row are seriously mentally ill. The law requires that the death penalty be reserved for the worst offenders, but contrary to the legal, professional and public mandate, the most impaired offenders, not the worst offenders, are the ones who have been and apparently will be executed.
technorati tags: Death+Penalty, Capital+Punishment, Robert+Coe, Sedley+Alley, Greg+Thompson, Paul+Reid
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