New Podcast: Protecting Especially Vulnerable Defendants from the Death Penalty — A Discussion with Karen Steele

In the lat­est episode of ​“Discussions with DPIC,” Robert Dunham, for­mer Executive Director of DPIC, inter­views Karen Steele (pic­tured), a researcher and defense attor­ney in Oregon, regard­ing the spe­cial char­ac­ter­is­tics of late ado­les­cent defen­dants fac­ing the death penal­ty. Research by Steele and oth­ers points to the incom­plete brain devel­op­ment in those aged 18 – 21 and how that can be exac­er­bat­ed in those suf­fer­ing from fetal alco­hol spec­trum dis­or­der. The research has also found that late-ado­les­cent defen­dants of col­or are dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly sen­tenced to death.

Ms. Steele dis­cuss­es her find­ings as a co-author of a study ana­lyz­ing the racial dis­par­i­ties in death penal­ty cas­es involv­ing juve­nile and late ado­les­cent defen­dants. The evi­dence has led her and oth­ers to rec­om­mend that late ado­les­cents be exempt from the death penal­ty. Steele stat­ed, “[A]rbitrarily draw­ing the line (for death-sen­tenc­ing eli­gi­bil­i­ty) at age 18, or 17-and-364 days miss­es too much, in terms of the same cul­pa­bil­i­ty-dimin­ish­ing char­ac­ter­is­tics that the court has already relied on to exempt the under-18 class from eli­gi­bil­i­ty for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment,” espe­cial­ly when adding in the inter­play with racial disparities.

Steele draws a sim­i­lar con­nec­tion between the dis­abil­i­ties of defen­dants with fetal alco­hol spec­trum dis­or­der and defen­dants of col­or. She explains that the devel­op­men­tal and cog­ni­tive issues occur­ring when fetal alco­holism is present are like those expe­ri­enced by late ado­les­cents: ​“There’s a par­al­lel between those clients and my clients with fetal alco­hol spec­trum dis­or­der because we’re talk­ing about invis­i­ble things that reduce cul­pa­bil­i­ty but are not yet vis­i­ble to our eyes. Black youth are dis­ad­van­taged because they are per­ceived as more mature. And Black late-ado­les­cents, they are per­ceived as more mature than even white late-adolescents.”

You can lis­ten to the pod­cast here.