Mental Illness
Additional Resources
Mental Illness Resources
- American Bar Association Death Penalty Due Process Review Project: Resources on Severe Mental Illness and Death Penalty
- American Bar Association Resolution 122A and accompanying article on exempting those with severe mental illness from the death penalty, August 8, 2006. An almost identical resolution has been endorsed by the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.
- ABA Death Penalty Due Process Review Project White Paper on Severe Mental Illness and the Death Penalty
- Amnesty International USA: The Death Penalty and Mental Illness
- ACLU: Mental Illness and the Death Penalty: Background information, including the various points in a case at which mental illness is an issue, descriptions of Supreme Court cases, and current legislative action.
- “Ill-Equipped: U. S. Prisons and Offenders With Mental Illness,” Human Right’s Watch Report, September 2003
- “The Execution of Mentally Ill Offenders,” Amnesty International Report, January 31, 2006.
- National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)
- NAMI’s Report, “Shattered Lives”
- National Mental Health Association
- DPIC’s webpage: Death Row Conditions
- “Double Tragedies,” NAMI and Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights
Articles and Books on Mental Illness
Articles
- A. Dillard, “Madness Alone Punishes the Madman: The Search for Moral Dignity in the Court’s Competency Doctrine as Applied in Capital Cases,” 79 Tennessee Law Review 461 (2012).
- F. Bordenave, MD and D. Kelly, MD, “Death Penalty and Mentally Ill Defendants,” (Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 2010). This article discusses two recent cases in the state Supreme Courts of Florida and Georgia which address the issue of whether mental illness is a bar to execution.
- C. Seeds, THE AFTERLIFE OF FORD AND PANETTI: EXECUTION COMPETENCE AND THE CAPACITY TO ASSIST COUNSEL, Saint Louis University Law Journal, Winter 2009
- The following articles are from Symposium Issue: Mental Health and the Criminal Justice System, from the ABA Criminal Justice Magazine, Fall 2007, Volume 22, Number 3:
- A. Taslitz, “Mental Health and Criminal Justice: An Overview,”
Prof. Taslitz, special issue editor, introduces the magazine’s symposium topic on mental illness and the justice system, including highlights of each article. - C. Slobogin, “The Supreme Court’s Recent Criminal Mental Health Cases Rulings of Questionable Competence”
For decades the subject of mental illness and criminal law languished in the legal “backwaters” at the U.S. Supreme Court. That changed in 2003 when the Court accepted the case of Sell v. United States (a defendant’s right to refuse medication), followed quickly by two more seminal decisions in Clark v. Arizona (2006) (the scope of psychiatric defenses) and Panetti v. Quarterman (2007) (the definition of competency to be executed). But has this sudden interest in mental illness issues resulted in good law? The author argues to the contrary and details where and how the Court has erred. - G. Nora, “Prosecutor as “Nurse Ratched”?: Misusing Criminal Justice as Alternative Medicine”
Traditionally, prosecutors approach claims of mental impairment by criminal defendants with skepticism, contesting competency defenses and sentencing mitigation. More recently, though, they find themselves as “diversionary gatekeepers”— seeking alternatives to trials and prison for those who more aptly belong in the medical arena. The author, a Cook County (Illinois) state’s attorney, finds neither role satisfactory and argues for reforms that will limit a prosecutor’s responsibility for addressing a defendant’s mental health needs through the justice system. - M. D’Emic, “The Promise of Mental Health Courts: Brooklyn Criminal Justice System Experiments with Treatment as an Alternative to Prison”
Judge D’Emic tracks the establishment of one of the country’s first courts to use diversionary treatment in dealing with mentally ill criminal defendants. He maps the defendant’s journey from intake through assessment and treatment to “graduation” from the program. - M. Mello, “Executing the Mentally Ill: When Is Someone Sane Enough to Die?”
An opponent of the death penalty, Prof. Mello presents this personal account of advocating for mentally ill death row inmates. While detailing his clients’ descent into madness and the tortured disconnect between the fantasy world of the insane and a justice system bent on accountability, the author looks at the impact of three high-profile cases. - W. Follette, D. Davis, and R. Leo, “Mental Health Status and Vulnerability to Police Interrogation Tactics”
The authors offers a psychological explanation of how police interrogation methods affect the “average” person’s ability to understand and exert his or her Miranda rights and what makes the mentally ill so much more susceptible to police coercion and likely to falsely confess.
Books
- P. Applebaum, “Death Row Delusions: When is a Prisoner Competent to Be Executed?” (Law and Psychiatry, 2007). An examination of Panetti v. Quarterman.
- Symposium: The Death Penalty and Mental Illness. (Catholic University Law Review, Summer 2005) (not available free online)
- M. Spinelli, M.D., “Maternal Infanticide Associated With mental Illness: Prevention and the Promise of Saved Lives” (American Journal of Psychiatry Digest, September 2004).
- D. Parsons, “Untreated Mental Illness Can Be Criminal” — Article covering a defendant’s capital case (Los Angeles Times, November 3, 2003).
- K. Swedlow, “Forced Medication of Legally Incompetent Prisoners: A Primer” (Human Rights Magazine, Spring 2003)
- K. Drew, “Executed Mentally Ill Inmate Heard Voices Until End,” (CNN, January 7, 2003). Article following the execution of Charles Singleton in Arkansas.
- L. Mansnerus, “Damaged Brains and the Death Penalty,” (New York Times, July 21, 2001).
- M. Radelet & K. Miller, “Executing the Mentally Ill,” book available from Sage Publications (1993).