(May 28, 2015) “Mental illness is not something people choose, and if it is found to have contributed to their actions—no matter how heinous they may have been—it would be unconscionably callous to make them pay the ultimate penalty,” argued an editorial in the Plain Dealer (“Death penalty should not apply to the seriously mentally ill: editorial,” May 27).
There is no outright ban on executing people with mental illness. While the Supreme Court has barred the execution of the intellectually disabled and of juveniles, populations it deems so vulnerable that their execution would constitute cruel and unusual punishment, there has been no such ban for people with mental illness.
The editorial calls for support for bipartisan legislation recently introduced in the Ohio Senate that would prohibit using the death penalty for people with serious mental illness who are convicted of murder.
The legislation reasons that someone who is “significantly impaired” as a direct result of their psychiatric illness is unable to understand what they are doing at the time of a criminal act.
But it shouldn’t have to come to this. Untreated severe mental illness is a factor in an estimated 10% of all the homicide deaths committed in the United States every year. Effective treatments for severe mental illness exist that would reduce the number of homicide victims and - by extension - the capital cases that result from them.
As long as mental health policy and systems fail to recognize and address mental illness with timely and effective treatment, homicide victims and their killers alike will continue dying as a consequence of non-treatment.
(Photo: Ken Plorkowski/Flickr)
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There is no outright ban on executing people with mental illness. While the Supreme Court has barred the execution of the intellectually disabled and of juveniles, populations it deems so vulnerable that their execution would constitute cruel and unusual punishment, there has been no such ban for people with mental illness. The editorial calls for support for bipartisan legislation recently introduced in the Ohio Senate that would prohibit using the death penalty for people with serious mental illness who are convicted of murder.
The legislation reasons that someone who is “significantly impaired” as a direct result of their psychiatric illness is unable to understand what they are doing at the time of a criminal act.
But it shouldn’t have to come to this. Untreated severe mental illness is a factor in an estimated 10% of all the homicide deaths committed in the United States every year. Effective treatments for severe mental illness exist that would reduce the number of homicide victims and - by extension - the capital cases that result from them.
As long as mental health policy and systems fail to recognize and address mental illness with timely and effective treatment, homicide victims and their killers alike will continue dying as a consequence of non-treatment.
(Photo: Ken Plorkowski/Flickr)
To comment, visit our Facebook page.
Visit our blog archive to read all our recent posts.