STUDIES: Six-Part Series Explores Mental Illness and the Death Penalty in Texas

The Texas Tribune recent­ly pub­lished a six-part series exam­in­ing the plight of men­tal­ly ill defen­dants in the Texas crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem. The series focused par­tic­u­lar­ly on death penal­ty cas­es, includ­ing that of Andre Thomas, a man with a long his­to­ry of men­tal ill­ness. He pulled his own eye out in 2004, and lat­er explained that he did it because he kept see­ing his wife, whom he killed along with his chil­dren just days before. Thomas is among thou­sands of men­tal­ly ill inmates in the Texas sys­tem, which has seen years of bud­get cuts result­ing in the reduc­tion of pro­grams. According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, more than 20% of the 290 inmates on Texas death row are diag­nosed with some type of men­tal ill­ness. One for­mer Texas death row inmate, Anthony Graves, recent­ly told a U.S. Congressional com­mit­tee that he lived under the ​“worst con­di­tions imag­in­able” when he was on death row, which is a form of soli­tary con­fine­ment. He said the cells were filthy and the food con­tained rodent waste. Inmates with men­tal ill­ness fre­quent­ly dete­ri­o­rat­ed while on death row; some inmates set them­selves on fire or smeared feces on their faces. Graves was lat­er cleared of all charges and freed from death row, but said he still has not recov­ered from the expe­ri­ence. An aver­age of 8,500 Texas prison inmates con­sid­ered dan­ger­ous or trou­ble­some are housed in admin­is­tra­tive seg­re­ga­tion, anoth­er form of soli­tary con­fine­ment, typ­i­cal­ly for 3 years. Most have no access to rehabilitative programs. 

Not all men­tal­ly ill mur­der defen­dants end up like Andre Thomas. Deanna Laney, a white house­wife from Smith County, Texas, stoned her chil­dren in 2003, killing two of them and leav­ing her 14-month-old son per­ma­nent­ly maimed. She said God told her to kill the chil­dren. She was found not guilty by rea­son of insan­i­ty and was trans­ferred to a state men­tal hos­pi­tal. She was released in 2012, but remains under court supervision.

(B. Grissom, ​“Andre Thomas: Struggling to Maintain Sanity in Prison” and ​“Andre Thomas: Questions of Competence,” Texas Tribune, February 26, 2013, and ear­li­er.) See Mental Illness and Arbitrariness.