The Florida Supreme Court reduced a death sen­tence to life with­out parole because of the defen­dan­t’s seri­ous men­tal ill­ness. The court not­ed that this was ​“one of the most doc­u­ment­ed cas­es of seri­ous men­tal ill­ness­es this court has reviewed.” In its deci­sion reject­ing the tri­al judge’s death sen­tence for Christopher Offord (pic­tured), the jus­tices unan­i­mous­ly held that the death penal­ty was a dis­pro­por­tion­ate pun­ish­ment due to Offord’s long-stand­ing men­tal prob­lems. Medical records show that Offord, who was con­vict­ed of killing his wife in 2004, suf­fers from schiz­o­phre­nia and bipo­lar dis­or­der and has been in and out of insti­tu­tions since he was a young boy. The tri­al judge had imposed a death sen­tence despite the fact that she found Offord had com­mit­ted the mur­der under the influ­ence of extreme men­tal or emo­tion­al dis­tur­bance and lacked the capac­i­ty to appre­ci­ate the crim­i­nal­i­ty of his con­duct. The jury had unan­i­mous­ly rec­om­mend­ed a death sentence.

(Associated Press, May 24, 2007). See Mental Illness.

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