Entries tagged with “National Alliance on Mental Illness”
Issues
Jun 24, 2021
Ohio Prisoner David Braden Becomes First Person Taken Off Death Row Under New Mental Illness Law
An Ohio trial court has resentenced death-row prisoner David Braden (pictured) to life without parole, making him the first person in the nation taken off death row by a state law barring capital punishment for people with severe mental illness. On June 23, 2021, Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Judge Colleen O’Donnell formally vacated the two death sentences imposed on Braden in June 1999 for the murders of his girlfriend and her father and sentenced him to life without parole on both…
Issues
Religion
,Federal Death Penalty
,Jul 15, 2020
Wesley Purkey Execution Temporarily Halted as Challenges Pending on Mental Competency, Health Danger to Religious Advisor, and Ineffective Representation
Lawyers for Wesley Purkey (pictured), the second of three federal death-row prisoners scheduled to be executed during the week of July 13, are seeking to halt his execution, arguing that mental illness and dementia have left him mentally incompetent. As Purkey challenges the constitutionality of his execution, his spiritual advisor, Rev. Dale Hartkemeyer, is seeking to move back the execution until the COVID-19 pandemic subsides. Hartkemeyer’s lawsuit asserts that conducting the execution…