NEW VOICES: A Psychologist — a War Veteran with Schizophrenia — Urges Adoption of a Death Penalty Exemption for Severe Mental Illness

In a recent com­men­tary arti­cle in Medium, psy­chol­o­gist Dr. Frederick J. Frese, III (pic­tured) — a Marine Corps vet­er­an who has him­self been diag­nosed with para­noid schiz­o­phre­nia — argues that Congress and state leg­is­la­tures should pass laws exempt­ing peo­ple with severe men­tal ill­ness from the death penal­ty. ​“Supporters and oppo­nents of the death penal­ty agree that it should only be reserved for the most cul­pa­ble and delib­er­ate of crim­i­nals who com­mit heinous crimes,” Frese writes. He says that “[m]y expe­ri­ence as a prac­ti­tion­er who has him­self expe­ri­enced psy­chosis or a flight from real­i­ty has taught me that peo­ple with severe men­tal ill­ness­es such as schiz­o­phre­nia or bi-polar dis­or­der do not pos­sess that lev­el of cul­pa­bil­i­ty dur­ing these times.” This year, leg­is­la­tors in eight states have intro­duced bills to bar use of the death penal­ty against defen­dants with severe men­tal ill­ness, putting them in a sim­i­lar class with juve­niles and those with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties, who are also inel­i­gi­ble for the death penal­ty. Frese calls these bipar­ti­san bills ​“well bal­anced” because they ​“require that each defen­dant be eval­u­at­ed indi­vid­u­al­ly — usu­al­ly by a judge, who care­ful­ly con­sid­ers expert tes­ti­mo­ny.” Jurors often mis­un­der­stand severe men­tal ill­ness and, Frese says, ​“may even con­sid­er it to be an addi­tion­al rea­son to impose the death penal­ty, rather than a rea­son to opt for a sen­tence of life with­out parole.” A 2015 DPIC Report, Battle Scars: Military Veterans and the Death Penalty, esti­mat­ed that vet­er­ans may con­sti­tute as much as 10% of the nation’s death row and high­light­ed the preva­lence of com­bat-relat­ed post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der among vet­er­ans sen­tenced to death. As a mil­i­tary vet­er­an him­self, Frese ties the issue of the men­tal ill­ness exemp­tion from cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment to the many vet­er­ans of war who are affect­ed by PTSD and trau­mat­ic brain injury. Writing dur­ing PTSD Awareness Month, he states, ​“Our jus­tice sys­tem should respond firm­ly, but with com­pas­sion and under­stand­ing for those who vol­un­teered to serve our coun­ty. They should not face execution.”

(F. J. Frese, III, ​“A Veteran’s Plea: Stop Executing People with Severe Mental Illness,” Medium, June 12, 2017.) See Mental Illness and New Voices.