On September 26, the Joint Task Force to Review the Administration of Ohio​’s Death Penalty vot­ed 15 – 2 to rec­om­mend a ban on death sen­tences for peo­ple with severe men­tal ill­ness. The pan­el of legal experts was cre­at­ed by the Ohio Supreme Court and the Ohio State Bar Association and includes judges, attor­neys, and leg­is­la­tors. Their pro­pos­al will be sub­mit­ted with oth­er rec­om­men­da­tions to the gov­er­nor and the General Assembly in 2014. Terry Russell, exec­u­tive direc­tor of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Ohio, said his orga­ni­za­tion has been advo­cat­ing for such a ban since 1999, when the state resumed exe­cu­tions after 36 years with the lethal injec­tion of an inmate with a life­long his­to­ry of severe men­tal ill­ness – Wilford Berry. ​“We knew this man was severe­ly men­tal­ly dis­abled,” Russell said. ​“It is inhu­mane to exe­cute some­one like that.” Panel mem­ber Judge Kathleen Keough said the exclu­sion was ​“a mat­ter of com­mon decen­cy,” and defen­dants with men­tal ill­ness should be con­sid­ered sim­i­lar to juve­niles and those with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties, who are already exclud­ed from the death penalty.

(A. Johnson, ​“Group wants to exclude severe­ly men­tal­ly ill from death penal­ty,” Columbus Dispatch; Associated Press, September 27, 2013). See Mental Illness and Studies.

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