Herbert Richardson Case

Herbert Richardson was an African-American Vietnam War veteran. This man fought on the frontlines to keep our country safe until he was honorably discharged because of his psychiatric illness that developed throughout the war. After the war, Herbert was sent to a veterans hospital to help with his trauma. It was there where he met a nurse. She would treat Herbert until she moved to Dothan, Alabama. Herbert followed her there hoping to have a relationship with her, they would date for some time until she told Herbert to not contact her. Hebert would soon begin to plan ways to win back the nurse’s affection, but it ended in tragedy. Herbert made a bomb that he would place on her porch, he would detonate that bomb and then run to the nurse’s aid

The court was prosecuting Herbert Richardson for capital murder, but they ignored the fact that he was a Vietnam War veteran, that he had acquired PTSD and other mental illnesses from the war, and that these illnesses hadn't been treated properly. “He still experienced severe head pain from his traumatic injuries in Vietnam and was known to shout ‘Incoming!’ at random times” (“Herbert Richardson”). The prosecution had completely ignored the evidence of Richardson not knowing exactly what he was doing and thinking that it was okay. “ Mr Richardson devised a bomb to place on the nurse’s front porch and planned to detonate the bomb and then run to her aid to save her, like he had saved people in Vietnam. Then she would love him and want to be with him again” (“Herbert Richardson”). This example shows that Herbert didn’t know what he was doing and what the consequences were going to be. Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, there have been many cases of people being sent to death row for things that they did indeed do, but they had no clue what they were doing and what they did

Cecil had no understanding of what he did wrong and also had no understanding of what was happening to him. “In the past decade, six psychiatric evaluations have found that Clayton should be exempt from execution because he does not understand that he will be executed, or the reasons for his execution. However, since his execution date was set, he did not have a competency hearing before a judge that could spare him from execution” (“Mentally Ill Prisoners Who Were Executed”). This shows another example of the court ignoring someone's psychological illnesses and continuing to treat this person like they were an average person who killed someone. This relates heavily to Bryan Stevenson’s case with Herbert Richardson and how his psychological illness was ignored and he was also sentenced to death and executed. To fix something as complex as the prosecutorial misconduct in Stevenson’s case with Herbert Richardson is nearly impossible. It would be super difficult to actually decide who is and isn’t mentally fit to be sentenced to