Leading Mental Health Organizations Call on Attorney General Barr to Stop July 15 Scheduled Execution of Wesley Purkey Who is Diagnosed with Schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s Disease
July 10, 2020
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(Washington, D.C.) Pointing to the Trump Administration’s commitment to “addressing the needs of individuals with serious mental illnesses” and arguing that “proceeding with his execution would violate the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition on executing people who are not competent to understand the reason for their execution,” three of the country’s leading mental health organizations today submitted a letter strongly urging the Trump Administration to withdraw the July 15 execution 
date of federal death row prisoner Wes Purkey, and to commute his sentence to life imprisonment without possibility of parole.
The letter, signed by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Mental Health America (MHA), and the Treatment Advocacy Center (TAC), cites Mr. Purkey’s childhood history of “horrific physical and sexual abuse” and of psychiatric problems including institutionalizations beginning at age 14. “His diagnoses included schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and brain damage. He experienced terrifying delusions and hallucinations, including the belief that people were spraying a poisonous mist into his room and that drug dealers had implanted a device in his chest that was intended to kill him.”
The letter from the three organizations can be accessed here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vHLgD2xXyCVzfejuwS9XijhqfOnLGi-T/view?usp=sharing
Mr. Purkey’s condition has progressively worsened during his years on death row. He has increasingly bizarre thought patterns and has filed many complaints against prison officials reflecting his irrational mental state. In 2016, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, a progressive dementia that usually results in death within seven years. The letter quotes a recent psychiatric report finding that “brain damage, dementia and delusions prevent [Mr. Purkey] from working with counsel or working for his own interest,” and that Mr. Purkey “lacked a rational understanding of the basis for his execution.”
While they acknowledge the pain Mr. Purkey’s crime has caused his victim’s family, the organizations assert that Mr. Purkey’s deteriorated mental condition would make executing him unconstitutional. “Irrespective of one’s position on the death penalty, it is well established that executing people whose developmental or medical status renders them less than fully able to comprehend the purpose of their punishment constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and does not comport with ‘evolving standards of decency.’”
The Treatment Advocacy Center is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating barriers to the timely and effective treatment of severe mental illness. The organization promotes laws, policies and practices for the delivery of psychiatric care and supports the development of innovative treatments for and research into the causes of severe and persistent psychiatric illnesses, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
