Death Penalty - Adults Talking Points

§ Over the past thirty years, the number of people with mental illness and other mental disabilities on death row has steadily increased.[i] It is estimated that 5-10 percent of people on death row have a serious mental illness.[ii]

§ Mental illness can influence an individual’s mental state at the time of a criminal act. It can affect how “voluntary” and reliable an individual’s statements might be. It can also compromise a person’s competence to stand trial and to waive his or her rights. It also may have an effect upon a person’s knowledge of the criminal justice system.

§ Research shows that people with mental illness pose no greater risk of violence than the average person.[iii] Unfortunately, however, the misperceived link between mental illness and violence drives both legal policy and criminal justice system practice with respect to people with mental illness.

§ Mental illness should always be taken into account during all phases of a potential death penalty case. Qualified professionals with expertise in the defendant’s mental illness should perform the assessment of competency to stand trial as well as competency to be executed.

§ States should suspend using the death penalty until more just, accurate and systematic ways of determining and considering a defendant’s mental status are developed. Inadequate legal representation is a major problem in capital cases – capital offenders are often represented by public defenders or appointed counsel with little or no resources. Often psychiatric history, family issues, and mental capacity are not presented at the time of the trial or sentencing. As a result, individuals with mental illness are executed without the criminal justice system aware of the existence of the illness.

[i] The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Fact Sheet: Mental Competency and the Death Penalty. Available: http://www.ncadp.org/facts.html

[ii] Personal communication with the California Appellate Project.

[iii] Steadman, H., Mulvey, E., Monahan, J., Robbins, P., Appelbaum, P., Grisso, T., Roth, L., Silver, E. (May 1998). Violence by People Discharged From Acute Psychiatric Inpatient Facilities and by Others in the Same Neighborhoods. Archives of General Psychiatry, (55).

National Mental Health Association
Phone: 800/969-NMHA
TTY Line: 800/433-5959
Email: infoctr@nmha.org

In providing these materials we are enabling our affiliates to respond in a timely way to death row cases through letter-writing campaigns and media outreach. By providing this Justice for Death Row Inmates Resource Kit, NMHA seeks to offer its affiliates and other advocates with important tools to empower and inform their advocacy efforts specific to death penalty cases.

Death Penalty and People with Mental Illness

Talking Points