Tennessee Death Penalty Fact Sheet
Mental Illness
"Over the past thirty years, the number of people with mental illness and other mental disabilities on death row has steadily increased." - National Mental Heath Association
International law clearly outlaws the execution of persons with mental illness. Virtually every country in the world prohibits the execution of those who are considered "insane." However, our legal understanding of mental illness has not kept pace with our medical knowledge. Thus, to be deemed "mentally competent" to face
execution, a person is only required to know that they are going to be executed and know why.
In Ford v Wainwright (1986), the U.S. Supreme Court determined that "inflicting the death penalty upon a prisoner who is insane" violates the U.S. Constitution. However, it is estimated that 10% of death row inmates suffer from serious mental illness while half of the general prison population reports having experienced mental illness at some time.
Research conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics documents that one of every six people in prison has a history of mental illness. These figures are even more pronounced among the population of lifers, with nearly one in five lifers (18.4%) having a history of mental illness, totaling an estimated 23,523 life-sentenced prisoners.
TENNESSEE CASES
In 2008, Richard Taylor had his conviction and death sentence reversed by an appeals court and was sentenced to life imprisonment after spending over 20 years on death row. Taylor, twice forced to stand trial despite his severe mental illness, agreed to the sentence in exchange for pleading guilty to the 1981 murder of a Tennessee correctional officer???a crime committed only after prison officials stopped giving Taylor his anti-psychotic medication.
In 2001, Gregory Thompson was so mentally incompetent that he was appointed a conservator to make decisions about what medications he should take. He suffers from delusional thought processes, psychosis, auditory and visual hallucinations, and is suicidal. However, the State now claims that Thompson is sane enough to be executed.
Abu-Ali Abdur???Rahman has a history of serious mental problems. He was physically abused and tortured by his father as a young child. As part of his post-conviction appeals, six mental health experts have diagnosed Abu-Ali Abdur???Rahman as suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and/or Borderline Personality Disorder. Abu-Ali has been on death row for 20 years.
The first person Tennessee executed in the modern era suffered from mental illness. Robert Coe was taking more than 20 medications to manage his multiple mental illnesses when he was killed by the state on April 19, 2000.
POSITIONS ON THE DEATH PENALTY BY MENTAL HEALTH ORGANIZATIONS
The National Mental Health Association (NMHA) believes that mental illness can influence an individual???s mental state at the time he or she commits a crime, can affect how "voluntary" and reliable an individual???s statements might be, can compromise a person???s competence to stand trial and to waive his or her rights, and may have an effect upon a person???s knowledge of the criminal justice system.
The American Psychological Association (APA) calls upon each jurisdiction in the United States that imposes capital punishment not to carry out the death penalty until the jurisdiction implements policies and procedures that can be shown through psychological and other social science research to ameliorate the deficiencies identified in its 2001 resolution on the death penalty.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) believes the death penalty is never appropriate for a defendant suffering from a serious brain disorder.
