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MENTAL HEALTH UPDATE - INDEX

June 12, 2008

Update on Death Penalty for Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities.

This past Tuesday, the Governor of Virginia, Timothy Kaine, stopped the execution of an individual who was regarded as mentally incompetent. Listed below is an update from MHANYS Director of Forensics Services, Bob Corliss, on the death penalty as it relates to individuals with psychiatric disabilities.

On Tuesday, June 10th , Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine stopped that night’s scheduled execution of Percy Walton, a man convicted of a three murders and commuted his sentence to life in prison without parole because he concluded that Walton was mentally incompetent.

In a lengthy statement, Governor Kaine said he canceled the execution because “one cannot reasonably conclude that Walton is fully aware of the punishment he is about to suffer and why he is to suffer it”. Tuesday’s decision to commute Walton’s sentence represented the third and final finding that Walton was mentally incompetent. The most recent evaluation determined that “there has been no discernible improvement in Walton’s condition” over the past 18 months, the date of the last previous evaluation. Walton was described as “extremely mentally ill” for years and profoundly impaired by his attorney.

In 1986, the Supreme Court ruled in Ford vs. Wainwright that the execution of persons who are mentally incompetent violates the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The court said that death-row inmates must be able to comprehend that they are about to be executed and why. The court, however, left it up to states to define who is competent. It is in this context, that legal arguments have ensued in Virginia as to whether Percy Walton mental condition met the requirements of the Supreme Court’s standards. Virginia’s Attorney General opposed the Governor’s position because the sentencing court had rejected the mental illness defense at the time of sentencing. Since 1976, Virginia has executed 99 persons.

It is important to note that while New York State currently has no death penalty statute, the original statute, and those which have been proposed since that time, would not exempt persons with a serious and persistent mental illness from facing the death penalty. The courts have never ruled definitively on this issue, although the courts have determined that other classes of persons are entitled to this kind of protection. Persons who suffer from serious mental retardation and persons under the age of 16 have been determined by the courts to be “categorically less culpable than the average criminal”, according to Justice John Paul Stevens in Atkins vs. Virginia in 2002, the deciding case involving defendants with a serious mental retardation. Many in the advocacy community believe this rationale similarly applies to persons with serious psychiatric disorders.

While there is no active discussion in Albany regarding reinstating the death penalty, we are in regular contact with David Kaczynski, Executive Director of the New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty to ensure that we are in a position to vigorously oppose any statute which would permit the execution of persons with a serious and persistent mental illness. David Kaczynski recently addressed the annual MHANYS Spring Reception and Silent Auction.