2008 Woodie Awards
Criminal justice: Mice, men and judicial malfeasance
Editorial
Nick Przybyciel
Issue date: 1/26/06 Section: Opinion
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"I've got one thing to say, get your warden off this gurney and shut up. I am from the island of Barbados. I am the warden of this unit. People are seeing you do this."
- Final statement of Monty Deik, a mentally ill man executed in 2002
Despite the fact that the U.N. has repeatedly adopted resolutions calling for an end to the use of the death penalty for mentally deranged individuals, there is a country that continues to kill prisoners proven to have mental disorders.
Until recently, the country in question even applied the death penalty to mentally retarded inmates, killing 12 individuals over the course of 20 years.
What kind of desolate, third-world backwoods would stoop so low and lack basic compassion? China? Russia? Iran?
Nope, not even close. Then who, pray-tell, could these Napoleonesque barbarians be? Here's a hint: the reason why this country didn't make the usual-suspects list for human rights violations is because, well, ah-hmmm … it's us.
The lead-in quote for this editorial was found in Amnesty International's Execution of Mentally Ill Offenders report that was published Jan. 31. The source of the quote, Monty Deik, is by no means an anomaly-- one in ten people executed in the United States suffer from a mental illness.
Schizophrenia, disassociative disorder, schizoaffective disorder- you name it, our criminal justice system has more than likely killed someone suffering from it.
A majority of the 113-page Amnesty International report is devoted to depressing anecdotes about our criminal justice system's obtuse and apathetic handling of capital punishment cases involving people with mental illnesses.
The following examples are taken directly from the report:
Sean Sellers -- sentenced to death for crimes committed when he was a 16-year-old. He had a history of mental problems from early childhood.
After his trial, a mental health expert found him to be chronically psychotic, exhibiting symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia and other major mood disorders. In 1992, six years after the trial, three mental health professionals diagnosed Sellers with multiple personality disorder.
- Final statement of Monty Deik, a mentally ill man executed in 2002
Despite the fact that the U.N. has repeatedly adopted resolutions calling for an end to the use of the death penalty for mentally deranged individuals, there is a country that continues to kill prisoners proven to have mental disorders.
Until recently, the country in question even applied the death penalty to mentally retarded inmates, killing 12 individuals over the course of 20 years.
What kind of desolate, third-world backwoods would stoop so low and lack basic compassion? China? Russia? Iran?
Nope, not even close. Then who, pray-tell, could these Napoleonesque barbarians be? Here's a hint: the reason why this country didn't make the usual-suspects list for human rights violations is because, well, ah-hmmm … it's us.
The lead-in quote for this editorial was found in Amnesty International's Execution of Mentally Ill Offenders report that was published Jan. 31. The source of the quote, Monty Deik, is by no means an anomaly-- one in ten people executed in the United States suffer from a mental illness.
Schizophrenia, disassociative disorder, schizoaffective disorder- you name it, our criminal justice system has more than likely killed someone suffering from it.
A majority of the 113-page Amnesty International report is devoted to depressing anecdotes about our criminal justice system's obtuse and apathetic handling of capital punishment cases involving people with mental illnesses.
The following examples are taken directly from the report:
Sean Sellers -- sentenced to death for crimes committed when he was a 16-year-old. He had a history of mental problems from early childhood.
After his trial, a mental health expert found him to be chronically psychotic, exhibiting symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia and other major mood disorders. In 1992, six years after the trial, three mental health professionals diagnosed Sellers with multiple personality disorder.