Jan. 31 USA: Call to reprieve mentally ill death row inmates Amnesty International today called for hundreds of mentally ill inmates of death row in the United States to have their sentences commuted. The human rights group said in a report that an estimated 10% of prisoners facing execution in the US have mental health problems. There are around 3,400 people on death row and Amnesty said hundreds of them were suffering from conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, brain damage and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), either from before the crimes for which they were sentenced, or at the time of their execution. The US has executed more than 1,000 people in the last 30 years. Amnesty said defendants with mental conditions had been allowed to conduct their own defences, waive their rights to appeal and "volunteer" to be executed. More than a quarter of the 100 mentally ill prisoners executed since 1977 had "volunteered", in some cases because they had "clearly despaired" of receiving treatment for their condition, the report said. Many trials never heard any evidence of mental illness, the report said, and US prosecutors exploited public ignorance or fear about mental illness by arguing that the "flat" or "unremorseful" demeanour of mentally ill defendants was further grounds for imposing the death sentence. Amnesty said it was wrong that while US courts had ruled that "evolving standards of decency" made the execution of child offenders and those with learning disabilities unlawful, they continued to allow those with severe mental health conditions to stand trial and receive death sentences. Only in one state, Connecticut, is the execution of a prisoner outlawed on the grounds that they were mentally ill at the time the crime was committed. The charity highlighted the case of Scott Panetti, a murder defendant in Texas in 1995, who attempted to conduct his own defence despite a long history of mental problems, including schizophrenia. He dressed as cowboy in the courtroom before mounting a rambling and chaotic defence, described by witnesses as a "circus", a "joke" and a "mockery", Amnesty said. Panetti was sentenced to death and remains on death row. In another case, Varnell Weeks - who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, hallucinations and delusions - was executed in Alabama in 1995. Amnesty said he appeared at a competency hearing with a domino tied to string attached to his shaved head, and rambled about serpents, albinos, Egyptians, the Bible and reproduction. According to the report, Varnell thought he was God, saw his execution as a plot to destroy mankind and believed he would not die but be transformed into a tortoise and reign over the universe. No evidence of mental health problems were heard at his trial, Amnesty said. Mike Blakemore, Amnesty International UK's media director, said George Bush, who is preparing to make his state of the union address tonight, should use his powers to end the executions of those with mental health problems. "Amnesty International is opposed to the death penalty in all cases but imposing it on the mentally ill is truly disgraceful," Mr Blakemore said. "Equally disgraceful is the forced medication of those who develop mental illness on death row precisely so that they can be executed. "Prisoners who should never have stood trial on grounds of mental incompetence have nevertheless done so and have gone to their deaths essentially unaware of what was being done to them." (source: The Guardian) ****************** Death Penalty & Mental Illness: NAMI Applauds Amnesty International Report Michael Fitzpatrick, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) today issued the following statement: "Amnesty International's report today on the death penalty and mental illness represents a compelling step forward in making the case that profound injustice exists at the most painful intersection of the mental healthcare and criminal justice systems in America. "NAMI opposes the death penalty for people with serious mental illnesses. The law has not kept pace with modern science. The criminal justice system is ill-suited to address biologically-based brain disorders that create illogical, confused patterns of thought. "Juries are called upon to apply narrow, irrelevant legal definitions to people who do not fit those terms. The law tries to paint bright lines between right and wrong in order to evaluate psychosis, delusions, and hallucinations. The death penalty poses issues that typically are never considered: * Stigma -- fear, ignorance, and prejudice -- surrounding mental illness may influence jury decisions, particularly in states where 'future dangerousness' is a criteria. Mental illness becomes an aggravating, rather than mitigating factor. * Defendants with serious mental illnesses during trial may appear impassive, because of the effects of psychiatric medications. Juries wrongly interpret their demeanor as lack of remorse. * As noted by President Bush's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, the mental healthcare system in America is a fragmented 'system in shambles.' Barriers to care exist. Individuals with serious mental illness often are unable to get help. Treatment or interventions may be inadequate, including long waiting lists or early discharge from hospitalization. * In supreme irony, defendants denied medical treatment before committing crimes may be forcibly medicated to make them competent to stand trial or be executed. States make people who are profoundly sick -- through no fault of their own -- marginally well for the sole purpose of putting them to death. "NAMI thanks Amnesty International for its contribution to this growing debate. We call on state legislatures to eliminate the death penalty in such cases. We believe the U.S. Supreme Court may ultimately rule its application to people with serious mental illness unconstitutional." For Copy of Amnesty International-- http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGAMR510032006 (source: NAMI----Web Site: http://www.nami.org) ALABAMA: Prosecutors plan to seek death penalty against man charged in store shooting The chief prosecutor for Cherokee County plans to seek the death penalty against a North Carolina man accused of killing a convenience store owner in September. 40-year-old Charles William Connor of Mooresboro has been charged with murder, armed robbery, impersonating a police officer and possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime. Connor and 44-year-old Myra Gunther Christenberry were arrested in Shelby, N.C., after officials there said they were involved in 2 armed robberies in that area. Christenberry also was charged with murder and armed robbery in the death of 34-year-old Natesh Ramesh Patel at Jed's convenience store in Blacksburg. Prosecutor Trey Gowdy, who filed notice to seek the death penalty against Connor last week, said his office is reviewing the case against Christenberry to determine whether to seek the same penalty against her. Investigators said Connor identified himself as a police officer and stayed inside the store, talking with Patel and customers for nearly 90 minutes before robbing the store and killing Patel. Police said Christenberry drove around while Connor was in the store and talked to him by walkie-talkie. (source: Associated Press) PENNSYLVANIA: Psychiatrist says man on death row for killing spree is psychotic A former prison guard who killed 13 people in a 1982 shooting rampage is psychotic and has no understanding of his impending execution or the reason for it, psychiatrists testified at a competency hearing Tuesday. George E. Banks has the delusional belief that he has been pardoned and that "his psychotic illness has eclipsed his ability" to make sound decisions, Dr. John O'Brien, a forensic psychiatrist, testified. "He said Jesus Christ has forgiven his sins and vacated his sentence," said O'Brien, who reviewed 10 years of psychiatric reports and conducted his own evaluation of Banks in July 2005. The hearing was to determine whether Banks, 63, is mentally competent to face execution for killing his 5 children, four current or former girlfriends and four others in a deadly rampage in Wilkes-Barre. Banks has said he wanted to protect his children from suffering the abuse he encountered as a biracial child. The state Supreme Court halted the execution in December 2004 and ordered the competency hearing, which was held at the state prison in Graterford. Banks, disheveled and seemingly oblivious to the proceedings, sat in a cell adjacent to the room where the hearing was held. O'Brien testified that Banks has refused to cooperate with his attorneys and psychiatrists, requires force-feedings, does not clean himself, has attempted suicide several times and undergone forced psychiatric commitment. Banks believes his continued incarceration "is related to a conspiracy and has to do with demons or something religious," O'Brien said. Banks also believes that he is a victim of a conspiracy by Islamic and American governments, his own attorneys and prison officials, O'Brien said. In a brief cross-examination, a prosecutor questioned how many hours it took O'Brien to come to his conclusion and pointed out that he only spoke to Banks once for about 30 to 45 minutes. O'Brien said he was confident in his conclusions. O'Brien had testified on the state's behalf when officials sought the execution of Gary Heidnik. He found Heidnik competent to be executed and Heidnik was put to death in 1999 for torturing women to death in the basement of his Philadelphia home. Dr. Richard G. Dudley Jr., who also testified Tuesday, reviewed several years of reports by prison doctors and conducted his own evaluation in November 2004. "When I met him, he went so far to say they - the conspirators - are willing to do anything to try to get him to submit to their desires," Dudley said. Banks believes the conspiracy is being perpetrated against him to get him to denounce God and undercut the religious beliefs of many people, Dudley testified. The competency hearing, conducted in front of Luzerne County President Judge Michael Conahan, could continue into Wednesday. The state was expected to present its witnesses later Tuesday afternoon. (source: Associated Press) **************** Judge to weigh mental state of killer of 13 on death row 23 years ago, George Emil Banks was on leave from his job as a prison guard when he borrowed an AR-15 assault rifle and shot to death 13 people, including 5 of his children. The shooting spree, in the Northeastern Pennsylvania city of Wilkes-Barre, remains the worst killing rampage by one person in state history. Banks was convicted in 1983 and sentenced to death after an unsuccessful insanity defense. This morning, a Luzerne County judge is set to convene a hearing behind the walls of Graterford Prison to determine whether Banks, 63, is mentally competent to be executed. After two decades of appeals, Banks could finally be put to death - perhaps late this year - if he is found competent, said Senior Deputy Attorney General Jonelle H. Eshbach. "He is at the eve of execution, and the only remaining barrier is the question of his competency," she said. The hearing promises an intriguing glimpse into the psyche of a mass murderer and the psychological impact of 20 years on death row. Defense attorney Albert J. Flora Jr. said that Banks is too seriously mentally ill to be executed. He said Banks has tried to commit suicide and gone on hunger strikes, and is now suffering from a dermatological ailment that has left him itchy and covered with lesions. Flora said the hearing will detail a "very bleak portrait" of how Banks has deteriorated into a dark and delusional world of mental illness. Eshbach says that while Banks has been diagnosed with mental illness, he is competent to be executed. "He's made various statements that indicate he understands he's on death row, and why. That's all that's necessary for competency," she said. Banks' mental condition is an issue because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1986 that it is unconstitutional to execute the insane. The court said that a hearing should be held to determine whether a prisoner is mentally competent and understands why he is about to be executed. "It is no less abhorrent today than it has been for centuries to exact in penance the life of one whose mental illness prevents him from comprehending the reasons for the penalty or its implications," the nation's high court stated in the 1986 Florida case of Ford v. Wainwright. Banks is one of 224 prisoners awaiting execution in Pennsylvania, which has the 4th-largest death row in the nation, behind California, Texas and Florida. Mental-health and legal experts say that mental illness is an issue on death rows across the country. If a prisoner doesn't arrive with mental illness, they say, chances are that he ultimately will suffer at least some mental deterioration because of the isolation that characterizes most capital units. "It's a profound assault on people's psychological stability to be kept in isolation for long periods of time," said Craig W. Haney, a psychology professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who has studied the impact of long-term incarceration. In Pennsylvania, death-row prisoners are housed in single cells, and are allowed an hour a day in an outdoor, chained exercise yard, alone or with one other inmate. The last person executed in Pennsylvania was Gary Heidnik - the so-called House of Horrors killer who tortured and killed 2 women in his Philadelphia basement - in July 1999. Banks came within a day of being executed in late 2004 until the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered the competency hearing after an emergency petition filed by Banks' mother. Banks was 40 when he went on the early-morning rampage on Sept. 25, 1982, in and around Wilkes-Barre. Among the 13 killed were 4 women, who were the mothers of five of his children. At the time, Banks was on leave from his job as a prison guard for several weeks; he had been told to seek help after threatening suicide. Son of a black father and white mother, Banks testified at his trial that his actions were "the culminations of 40 years of racist hatred," and his lawyers argued that he was driven to murder by delusions of impending racial wars and fears of the racial abuse his children might suffer. But the jury rejected the insanity defense, instead finding Banks guilty and sentencing him to death. In the years since then, Banks' mental and physical condition has deteriorated, Flora said. "He is a shell of what he was back in 1982," he said. Flora said there are now two issues to be decided: whether Banks is mentally competent to be executed, and whether he has the mental capacity to understand and assist his lawyers in a bid for clemency. Flora said the hearing was postponed last year because of Banks' skin lesions, which one doctor testified had covered 90 % of his body. He said the hearing is being held at Graterford because Banks is confined to the infirmary. Banks' condition, he said, is unclear. "None of us know what to expect," Flora said. (source: Philadelphia Inquirer) ******************** 3 accused in torture killing face death penalty 3 people accused of torturing and killing a man -- including burning him while he wore a shirt soaked with lighter fluid -- will face the death penalty, Butler County prosecutors said. Timothy Caldwell, his roommate and cousin Melissa Adams and their friend Russell Lee Hilliard, all of Butler, are charged with criminal homicide and other counts in the death of Jason Ritzert, 30. Ritzert's body was found Nov. 11, burned beyond recognition in a large trash bin. Authorities said Caldwell and Adams tortured and killed Ritzert, who also lived with them, because they thought he was stealing money. David DeFazio, Caldwell's attorney, said he wants to have his client examined for a possible insanity plea. Caldwell had been a patient at a state mental hospital. (source: Associated Press) GEORGIA: Put death sentences on hold until flaws are fixed The American Bar Association, following the recommendation of an assessment team made up of 10 Georgia legal experts, wants a moratorium on executions in Georgia until the state can guarantee fairness in defendants' capital offense trials and their appeals process. While we do not favor abolishing the death penalty - there are some offenses so horrendous that a death sentence is appropriate - a reasonable person likely would agree that Georgia's judicial process should ensure defendants sentenced to die are actually guilty of the crime and that they have the legal tools available to present a thorough appeal process. Many state prosecutors and politicians, including Gov. Sonny Perdue and Attorney General Thurbert Baker, disagree with the recommendation. They say Georgia, which makes it more difficult than any other state for a defendant to avoid a death sentence, fairly applies the legal process that can put a prisoner on death row. Others, however, like former Georgia Supreme Court chief justice and member of the ABA study team, Harold Clarke of Forsyth, aren't as certain this is the case. As Clarke told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "There are too many instances - and one's too many - where folks are convicted and turn out not to be guilty, and then there are some more that we probably do not know about." That's what concerns us. For example, one member of the ABA team, Donnie Dixon, a former U.S. attorney in Savannah, was the only member of the 10-person panel to oppose the moratorium. His argument: "Most of the cases on death row, the individuals got there through a fair process," he told the newspaper. Is it is good enough, that most of the cases get to death row fairly? No. One wrong case - one mistake - is too many, and if the state cannot be absolutely certain that all of the prisoners sentenced to be executed deserve that punishment, then the state needs to stop the process until it can be repaired. It wouldn't be all that difficult, but some rules would have to change. For example, the ABA noted, Georgia is the only state in the union that does not provide legal assistance for a condemned prisoner's habeas corpus appeals. These appeals challenge convictions on constitutional grounds and can result in new trials or resentencing hearings. Equally important, it needs to be ascertained under the state's new public defender system, that prisoners facing capital punishment be provided with experienced lawyers. And, Georgia should rethink laws that make it almost impossible for a defendant to prove mental retardation. We read of incidents nationwide in which innocent people have been sent to death row. If Georgia really seeks justice, then true justice must ensure that we make no life or death mistakes. (source: Macon Telegraph)
