A recent arti­cle by Prof. Jeffrey Kirchmeier of the City University of New York School of Law enti­tled, ​“The Undiscovered Country: Execution Competency & Comprehending Death” explores whether men­tal­ly dis­abled inmates who do not under­stand that exe­cu­tion means the end of their phys­i­cal life should be spared. Kirchmeier exam­ines Supreme Court prece­dent under the Eighth Amendment that requires that a con­demned defen­dant be com­pe­tent in order to be exe­cut­ed. The arti­cle argues that the peno­log­i­cal goals of the death penal­ty could not be ful­filled unless the con­demned per­son com­pre­hends what his death means. Kirchmeier writes, ​“Those who do not com­pre­hend death are not as a cat­e­go­ry a group of peo­ple who will be deterred by the death penal­ty more than life in prison, and such per­sons will not be able to appre­ci­ate the moral con­dem­na­tion designed to be deliv­ered by the death penal­ty.” The arti­cle also dis­cuss­es a stan­dard for com­pre­hen­sion of death con­sis­tent with ear­li­er Court rul­ings. Click here to read the full article.

(J. Kirchmeier, ​“The Undiscovered Country: Execution Competency & Comprehending Death,” 98 Kentucky Law Journal 263, 298 (2009 – 2010)). See also Law Reviews, Intellectual Disability and Mental Illness.

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