Former Tennessee Attorney General Supports Mental Illness Exemption

In an op-ed in the Memphis newspaper, The Commercial Appeal, former Tennessee Attorney General W.J. Michael Cody (pictured) has expressed his support for a bill that would exempt people with serious mental illness from the death penalty. Cody, who later served as a member of the American Bar Association’s Tennessee Death Penalty Assessment Team, said that “as society’s understanding of mental illness improves every day,” it is “surprising that people with severe mental illnesses, like schizophrenia, can still be subject to the death penalty in Tennessee.”

In his op-ed, Cody describes how cases with seriously mentally ill defendants differ from other capital cases: “In 2007, an ABA study committee, of which I was a member, conducted a comprehensive assessment of Tennessee’s death penalty laws and found that ‘mental illness can affect every stage of a capital trial’ and that ‘when the judge, prosecutor and jurors are misinformed about the nature of mental illness and its relevance to the defendant’s culpability, tragic consequences often follow for the defendant.’”

Cody also draws on his experience as the state’s top prosecutor, saying, “As a former Tennessee Attorney General, I understand how horrific these crimes are and how seriously we must take capital cases. … But in light of our increased understanding of mental illness, I believe that for those with documented mental illness of the most severe form at the time of their crime, the maximum punishment should be life in prison without parole.”

Tennessee is one of at least seven states in which legislators have introduced bills that would exempt those with severe mental illness from the death penalty. Numerous legal and mental health organizations, including the American Bar Association, American Psychiatric Association, and National Alliance on Mental Illness, support excluding defendants with serious mental illness from the death penalty.