For AI members only AI index: AMR 51/020/2006

Distribution: PG/SC

To: Health Professional Network, Death Penalty Network

From: Health and Human Rights Team
Date: 31 January 2006

Execution of death row inmates with a mental illness

USA

Summary
This action for the health professional and death penalty networks accompanies the report The
execution of mentally ill offenders in the USA – summary report (AMR 51/002/2006,
launched on 31 January 2006.
The full report (AMR 51/003/2006) will be available on the internet only. A separate action
circular (AMR 51/006/2006) has been issued to USA CAP coordinators. In addition a press
release (AMR 51/018/2006) is available.
Please liaise between those responsible for health and death penalty networks when
undertaking activities.

AI concerns
[The below is taken from the summary report]
By end December 2005, more than 1,000 men and women had executed in the United States
of America since executions resumed there in 1977. Dozens of these people had histories of
serious mental impairment. Some had mental retardation1, others suffered from mental illness,
and some were diagnosed with both.
In some cases, there were serious doubts about the defendant’s competence to stand
trial – whether they genuinely understood the nature and seriousness of the proceedings
against them or had the capacity to assist in their defence. Some had been restored to
competency in psychiatric hospitals after their crimes, including with anti-psychotic

1
The report uses the term mental retardation, rather than learning disability, as it is the term used in the
USA. Mental retardation / disability is a permanent developmental disability, whereas mental illness
may develop and may be treated during one’s lifetime.
medication. Doubts existed also in some cases about the defendants’ competence to plead
guilty or to waive trial counsel and to represent themselves
Inadequate legal representation left some juries unaware of the existence or extent of
the mental impairment of the person they were being asked to sentence to death. In other
cases, protecting their mentally ill clients from the death penalty proved an insurmountable
challenge for under-resourced defence lawyers. Perhaps the defendant was medicated and to
the jury, appeared remorseless – a highly aggravating factor in the life or death decisions of
capital jurors. Or perhaps the defendants’ delusional illness rendered them unwilling to
divulge information to a lawyer or doctor believed to be part of a conspiracy against them.
For some, the prosecutor appeared to denigrate evidence of mental disability or even to
portray such impairment as a sign of a person’s dangerousness. In some cases, medical
professionals joined in an unethical pact with the state to predict with absolute certainty the
future threat posed by a defendant.

Amnesty International’s report discusses many cases and includes an illustrative list
of 100 people who have been executed in the USA since it resumed judicial killing in 1977.
Each of these individuals had suffered from some form of serious mental illness or mental
impairment other than mental retardation. 2 As a minimum step, the USA should end the
execution of people with serious mental illness. Amnesty International will join the campaign
for such an exemption for those with a mental illness, even as the organization continues to
seek to persuade the USA to end its use of the death penalty altogether.

Recommended action
Outreach/publicity
Please write to NGOs in your countries who either work on mental health issues or on death
penalty issues,
• outlining AI’s concerns and enclosing a copy of the report;
• requesting a meeting;
• asking the NGO to highlight AI’s concerns in their newsletter to their membership; an
article could simultaneously be used for membership recruitment if appropriate.
You could also contact your professional associations, for example, your nurses, medical and/or
mental health associations,
• explaining AI’s concerns and enclosing a copy of the report;
• asking them for their position;
• asking them to raise AI’s report at their annual general meeting.
• proposing to publish an article in their professional journal.

Letterwriting
In letter-writing this action will follow the USA CAP circular and will target Alberto Gonzales,
US Attorney General, and clemency authorities in Texas, Indiana and Ohio. The reasons for
focussing on these states are below.

2
For a list of 40 cases of people with claims of mental retardation who were executed in the USA
between 1984 and 2001, see pp 100-101 of the report, USA: Indecent and internationally illegal – The
death penalty against child offenders, September 2002,
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR511432002.

2
Texas has carried out numerous executions of those with severe mental illness. The clemency
Board has to make a favourable recommendation for clemency to the governor, which he can
accept or reject. The Board actually recommended clemency for Kelsey Patterson, a severely
mentally ill man, in the spring of 2004, which was virtually unprecedented. We think we can
make an impact on the Board in future cases on these grounds.
Indiana : Numerous cases of inmates with severe mental illness have come before the Indiana
clemency Board in the last year or so. The case of Arthur Baird resulted in commutation of his
sentence, on the grounds of mental illness.
The Indiana Parole Board maintains one set of mandatory and a second set of permissive
substantive criteria upon which it may base its clemency decisions. The second set includes "the
offender's psychological and psychiatric condition and history." The Board can recommend
clemency, but the governor' s decision does not depend on it.
Ohio has become one of the top executing states in the country and mental illness has been a big
concern in some of these cases. In the general prison system, however, Ohio has invested in
mental health treatment for inmates and appears to be a model for reform in this area. We have an
opportunity to place extra pressure on the board and encourage conformity with the way those
with mental illness are treated by the rest of Ohio'
s corrections system (beyond death row).
In all letters, please use relevant examples from the list of illustrative cases in the appendix to the
summary report, or use the most recent DP/USA Urgent Action where mental illness was an issue.
When you are writing to state clemency authorities, select those cases that are relevant to the state
you are writing to.
Please follow the guidelines below in your letters to both the Attorney General and the Parole
Boards:
• Introducing yourself as member of AI’s health professional or death penalty network,
saying that you are writing in the context of AI’s report: USA : The execution of mentally
ill offenders;
• express your concern about the continuing use of the death penalty against people with
serious mental illness in the USA;
• inviting a response.

In addition, please include the following in letters to the Attorney General:

• urging him to do all he can to ensure that Federal prosecutors do not pursue a death
sentence against any defendant with a serious mental illness, and that no-one with a claim
of serious mental illness is executed.
Please add the following to the clemency authorities:
• urging them to ensure that no-one with a claim of serious mental illness is executed in
their state.

3
Addresses
Federal authorities

Alberto Gonzales Attorney General

The Honorable Alberto Gonzales
Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Tel: + 1 202 353 1555
Fax: + 1 202 307 6777
Email: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

State clemency authorities

Texas

Ms. Rissie Owens, Presiding Officer,

Board of Pardons and Paroles
1300 11th Street, Suite 520
PO Box 599
Huntsville, TX 77342-0599
Fax : +1 936 291 8367

The following are all the other members of the Board:

Jose Aliseda, Jr.
Charles Aycock
Jackie DeNoyelles
Linda Garcia
Juanita M. Gonzalez

Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles

P. O. Box 13401
Austin, Texas 78711-3401
Fax : +1 512 463 8120

Local addresses for Board Members can be obtained through:

http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/bpp/brd_locations/brd_locations.html

Ohio

Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction

Ohio Parole Board
1050 Freeway Drive North
Columbus, Ohio 43229
Fax : +1 614 752 0600

Ms. Cynthia B. Mausser, Acting Chair

Mr. Jim Bedra, Member
Dr. Sandra Crockett Mack, Member
Ms. Betty J. Mitchell, Member
Ms. Cheryl Martinez, Member
Mr. Peter Davis, Member

4
Mr. Robert Maszczynski, Member
Mrs. Kathleen Kovach, Member
Ms. Ellen Venters, Member

The Board can recommend clemency, but the governor'

s decision does not depend on it.

Indiana

Indiana Parole Board

Indiana Government Center South
302 West Washington, Room E-321
Indianapolis, IN 46204
Fax : +1 317 232 5738

Raymond W. Rizzo, Chairman

Valerie J. Parker, Vice Chair
Thor R. Miller, Member
Randall P. Gentry, Member

Please also write to diplomatic representatives of the USA accredited to your country.
If you receive no reply within six weeks of sending your letter, please send a follow-up letter
seeking a response. Please send copies of any letters you receive to the International Secretariat,
attention of the health and human rights team or email: health@amnesty.org