A new report issued by Amnesty International exam­ines the issue of men­tal ill­ness and the death penal­ty. The report notes that the U.S. Supreme Court’s deci­sions to halt the exe­cu­tions of juve­nile offend­ers and those with men­tal retar­da­tion left a ques­tion mark over anoth­er cat­e­go­ry of offend­er, the men­tal­ly ill.

In the report, Amnesty asks: ​“If the dimin­ished cul­pa­bil­i­ty asso­ci­at­ed with youth and men­tal retar­da­tion ren­der the death penal­ty an exces­sive pun­ish­ment when used against offend­ers from those cat­e­gories, what about peo­ple suf­fer­ing from seri­ous men­tal dis­or­der oth­er than retar­da­tion, such as seri­ous brain dam­age, at the time of the crime? Should they not also be inel­i­gi­ble for execution?”

The American Psychiatric Association’s response to the ban placed on exe­cut­ing those with men­tal retar­da­tion addressed this issue, not­ing, ​“A sys­tem­at­ic risk of dis­pro­por­tion­ate pun­ish­ment also aris­es in cas­es involv­ing defen­dants with severe men­tal ill­ness. Even though defen­dants with men­tal ill­ness are enti­tled to intro­duce men­tal health evi­dence in mit­i­ga­tion of sen­tence, com­men­ta­tors on cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing have often observed that juries tend to deval­ue undis­put­ed and strong evi­dence of dimin­ished respon­si­bil­i­ty in the face of strong evi­dence of aggra­va­tion. Indeed, such evi­dence is often a dou­ble-edged sword, tend­ing to show both impaired capac­i­ty as well as future dan­ger­ous­ness.”

Amnesty’s report rais­es spe­cif­ic con­cerns about the pos­si­bil­i­ty of wrong­ful con­vic­tion for those with men­tal ill­ness because these indi­vid­u­als are often unable to assist their attor­neys or ful­ly com­pre­hend the pro­ceed­ings. In addi­tion, those with men­tal ill­ness may be par­tic­u­lar­ly vul­ner­a­ble to pres­sure from police or pros­e­cu­tors, may appear to be lack­ing in emo­tion or remorse dur­ing tri­al due to med­ica­tion, and may try to cov­er-up their ill­ness or a fam­i­ly his­to­ry of sim­i­lar prob­lems because of the stig­ma attached to men­tal ill­ness.

Because of these prob­lems, the report pri­mar­i­ly rec­om­mends that peo­ple with seri­ous men­tal ill­ness be exclud­ed from receiv­ing the death penal­ty. In addi­tion, Amnesty International recommends:

  • Governments should ensure ade­quate fund­ing for cap­i­tal cas­es so that defen­dants with men­tal ill­ness are rep­re­sent­ed by attor­neys who are capa­ble of assist­ing such clients.
  • Prosecutors should attend train­ing pro­grams to assist them in rec­og­niz­ing the signs and symp­toms of seri­ous men­tal ill­ness and other impairments.
  • Defense attor­neys should receive spe­cial train­ing to learn how to more effec­tive­ly work with and defend those with mental illness.
  • Prison offi­cials should ensure that all peo­ple with men­tal ill­ness on death row receive appro­pri­ate treat­ment, and that any­one suf­fer­ing severe psy­chosis is removed from death row.

Read Amnesty International’s report ​“The Execution of Mentally Ill Offenders.”

See DPIC’s Mental Illness Web page.

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