Entries tagged with “Posttraumatic Stress Disorder”

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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Costs

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Deterrence

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Innocence

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Intellectual Disability

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Mental Illness

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Race

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Representation

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Feb 21, 2022

56 Prosecutors Issue Joint Statement Calling for End of ​‘Broken’ Death Penalty

Calling cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the U.S. ​“bro­ken,” 56 elect­ed pros­e­cu­tors from across the coun­try have issued a joint state­ment urg­ing sys­temic changes to end the death penal­ty nation­wide. As an ini­tial step, the pros­e­cu­tors pledged to not seek the death penal­ty ​“against peo­ple with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties, post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der, his­to­ries of trau­mat­ic brain injury, or oth­er intel­lec­tu­al or cog­ni­tive chal­lenges that dimin­ish their abil­i­ty to ful­ly under­stand and reg­u­late their own…

Policy Issues

Intellectual Disability

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Mental Illness

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Public Opinion

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Feb 03, 2022

New Poll: Voters Overwhelmingly Oppose Las Vegas DA Seeking the Death Penalty Against Vulnerable and Impaired Persons

Likely vot­ers in Clark County, Nevada over­whelm­ing­ly oppose the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment against broad cat­e­gories of vul­ner­a­ble and impaired per­sons whom coun­ty pros­e­cu­tors have been try­ing to exe­cute, a new poll released by Vegas Watch on January 27, 2022…

Policy Issues

Mental Illness

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United States Supreme Court

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Feb 27, 2020

U.S. Supreme Court Rules that Arizona Man Unconstitutionally Sentenced to Death Is Not Entitled to Jury Resentencing

A divid­ed U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that James McKinney (pic­tured), an Arizona death-row pris­on­er who was uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly sen­tenced to death by a tri­al judge who did not con­sid­er mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence relat­ing to his severe Posttraumatic Stress Disorder from relent­less child­hood abuse, is not enti­tled to a jury tri­al to deter­mine his sen­tence. On February 25, 2020, in a 5 – 4 opin­ion authored by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the Court upheld the…

Policy Issues

Mental Illness

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Military

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Nov 12, 2018

A Veterans Day Review: Recent Cases Highlight Concerns About Veterans and the Death Penalty

As Americans become increas­ing­ly aware of the role of com­bat trau­ma in the devel­op­ment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and oth­er men­tal health dis­or­ders, the shift in pub­lic per­cep­tions towards vet­er­ans suf­fer­ing from these dis­or­ders has played out in the courts in recent death penal­ty cas­es. In 2018, at least four mil­i­tary vet­er­ans fac­ing death sen­tences have instead been sen­tenced to life in prison, and anoth­er two vet­er­ans won relief in their death-penal­ty cas­es. One military…

Policy Issues

Mental Illness

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Representation

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Military

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Aug 07, 2018

Two Servicemen Suffering From Brain Trauma, PTSD Win Death-Penalty Relief

Two ser­vice­men — one a for­mer air­man on the U.S. mil­i­tary death row, anoth­er a dec­o­rat­ed Vietnam vet­er­an sen­tenced to death in Pennsylvania—have won relief from their cap­i­tal con­vic­tions or death…