Mental Illness

On March 28, Judge Michael Hogan of Pittsburg County ruled that James Ryder is incom­pe­tent to be exe­cut­ed after a hear­ing where experts estab­lished Mr. Ryder’s seri­ous men­tal ill­ness. “[We are] relieved the court reached the only log­i­cal con­clu­sion… James has no ratio­nal under­stand­ing of why Oklahoma plans to exe­cute him,” said Mr. Ryder’s attor­ney, Emma Rolls, fol­low­ing the deci­sion. ​“James has suf­fered from schiz­o­phre­nia for near­ly 40 years and has lit­tle con­nec­tion to objec­tive real­i­ty.” Mr. Ryder, 62, was the first sched­uled exe­cu­tion of 2024 in Oklahoma before the…

On March 27, 2024, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) resen­tenced death row pris­on­er Randall Mays to life in prison with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole after an expert for the state con­ced­ed that the evi­dence pre­sent­ed by Mr. Mays’ attor­neys indi­cates he is intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled, and thus inel­i­gi­ble for the death penal­ty. Originally sen­tenced to death in 2008 for the mur­der of two Henderson County, Texas, sheriff’s deputies, Mr. Mays’ attor­neys have long argued that he should be exempt from fac­ing exe­cu­tion because of his dis­abil­i­ty. ​“The evi­dence of…

This month, DPIC cel­e­brates Women’s History Month with week­ly pro­files of notable women whose work has been sig­nif­i­cant in the mod­ern death penal­ty era. The sec­ond entry in this series is Sarah Belal, founder and exec­u­tive direc­tor of Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), a non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tion in Lahore, Pakistan. 

On December 22, 2023, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals issued a 100-day stay of exe­cu­tion to car­ry out a men­tal com­pe­ten­cy hear­ing for James Ryder, who was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on February 1, 2024. Mr. Ryder’s attor­neys have argued for years that he is not com­pe­tent to face exe­cu­tion, cit­ing long stand­ing men­tal ill­ness that has wors­ened through­out his incar­cer­a­tion. Several psy­chol­o­gists have diag­nosed Mr. Ryder with para­noid schiz­o­phre­nia and con­clud­ed he is not com­pe­tent to face exe­cu­tion. ​“Having reviewed the evi­dence, we find the mat­ter should be…

A new sto­ry by the L.A. Times high­lights for­mer California death row pris­on­er Craigen Armstrong’s instru­men­tal role in build­ing a peer-pris­on­er men­tal health treat­ment pro­gram in the Los Angeles Twin Towers Correctional Facility, an effort which has helped hun­dreds of pris­on­ers with severe men­tal ill­ness. While await­ing retri­al, Mr. Armstrong estab­lished the ​“men­tal health assis­tant” role to sup­port and treat fel­low pris­on­ers, and has devel­oped train­ing mate­ri­als for jails and pris­ons across the coun­try to repli­cate his program’s success. 

A death-sen­tenced pris­on­er whose appeal was lost for thir­ty years was resen­tenced to life with parole on November 14, 2023, when the Harris County, Texas District Attorney’s office said it is no longer pur­su­ing the death penal­ty. Syed Rabbani, a Bangladeshi nation­al, has been on death row since 1988 for a fatal Houston shoot­ing. Mr. Rabbani filed his appeal in 1994, but it remained pend­ing in the Harris County Court sys­tem until 2022, when the Harris County District Clerk’s Office redis­cov­ered the fil­ing among 100+ oth­er ​‘for­got­ten’ cas­es. Although severely…

Though the Supreme Court has ruled that the Constitution for­bids the death penal­ty for a per­son who is ​“insane” at the time of exe­cu­tion, it has nev­er held that the exe­cu­tion of peo­ple with seri­ous men­tal ill­ness is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. Experts have found that two in five peo­ple exe­cut­ed between 2000 and 2015 had a men­tal ill­ness diag­no­sis such as bipo­lar dis­or­der, schiz­o­phre­nia, or PTSD. Since 2017, at least eleven states have attempt­ed to strength­en pro­tec­tions for vul­ner­a­ble pris­on­ers by intro­duc­ing bills bar­ring the exe­cu­tion of those with seri­ous men­tal illness…

In July 2023, the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) released its report and posi­tion state­ment on men­tal health and the death penal­ty. The issues addressed in the report include: the impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty on pris­on­ers with men­tal ill­ness or devel­op­men­tal and intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties, the over­rep­re­sen­ta­tion of death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers who have been socioe­co­nom­i­cal­ly mar­gin­al­ized, and the role of psy­chi­a­trists in death penal­ty cases. 

On September 28, 2023, the Western District Court of Texas ruled that the state can­not exe­cute Scott Panetti (pic­tured), a death row pris­on­er with a decades-long his­to­ry of seri­ous men­tal health issues and a diag­no­sis of schiz­o­phre­nia. Despite a state expert con­ced­ing Mr. Panetti’s seri­ous men­tal ill­ness, Texas argued that he is com­pe­tent to face exe­cu­tion because he has ​“some degree” of ratio­nal under­stand­ing. U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman ruled, how­ev­er, that “[Mr.] Panetti is not sane enough to be exe­cut­ed” and that he ​“lack[s] a ratio­nal under­stand­ing of the…

On September 21, 2023, a mil­i­tary judge in Guantanamo Bay ruled that Ramzi Bin al Shibh, one of five defen­dants in the 9/​11 case for whom the death penal­ty is being sought, is men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent to stand tri­al. Mr. Bin al Shibh, who has been detained for 21 years, will remain in cus­tody at Guantanamo as author­i­ties attempt to treat the post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der caused when he was forced to under­go ​“enhanced inter­ro­ga­tions” by the U.S. government.