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Mental illness within the criminal justice system
Mental illness within the criminal justice system
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Mental illness within the criminal justice system
Mental illness within the criminal justice system
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Mental illness within the criminal justice system
Page 1: The day was boring. Other than a snack of carrots, there had been no excitement for Agu Gugu. He wanted to just play with toys in his room, but even that did not seem to be an option. Opening the door to his room, Gugu 's mother looked back at him.
Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the execution of criminals with intellectual disability was excessive and therefore prohibited by the Eighth Amendment as cruel and unusual punishment. Although the Court stated that, “Those ‘mentally retarded’ persons who meet the law’s requirements for criminal responsibility should be tried and punished when they commit crimes”, imposing a death sentence on them is excessive. The decision overturned the Supreme Court of Virginia’s 1989 decision in Penry. Whereas the Supreme Court of Virginia relied upon Penry, in Atkins, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that times have changed since the Penry decision was handed down.
Therefore the question that should be asked is, Is the execution of a defendant with intellectual disabilities (mental retardation) cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth Amendment ("FindLaw's United States Supreme Court case and opinions.",
Conferring to Anderson, & Hewitt, (2002), “individuals who show clinically significant improvement in general psychopathology are more likely to be perceived as restored to competency.” However, 50% of people who are diagnosed with mental retardation or acquired cognitive deficits are not restored; such mental disorders render the suspect irresponsive to the required court
A life of severe disability, is not a life worth living. Therefore, an infant born with a severe physical or cognitive impairment should not be allowed to live. Or any person for that matter, regardless of age who suffers from a severe cognitive disability should be lawfully killed. At least that is a belief held by a certain professor at Princeton University. Harriet McBryde Johnson, a disability advocate and lawyer had the opportunity to debate these beliefs with Professor Peter Singer.
Texas holds the title for the state with most executions in the United States gaining heavy scrutiny for the use of death penalty. Many are concerned that the death penalty is in direct violation of the 8th amendment of the constitution which forbids the act of cruel and unusual punishment as well as being wrong on a moral level. This becomes a hot button issue when mental illness comes into play as 30% of Texas's incarcerated inmates, have been clients of the state’s mental health system (“Texas Death Penalty”). Andre Lee Thomas is one of those inmates, sentenced to death, but also deemed mentally unstable.
People often are guilty of letting things that are out of sight be out of their mind, but human rights should not be something overlooked. The imprisoned mentally ill has been often overlooked and there voices are not heard as they struggle everyday in inhumane conditions. The eight amendment states that no cruel and unusual punishments is to be inflicted upon the prisoners. Is the United Sates prison systems treating mentally ill prisoners according to the eight amendment? The largest prison rates belong to the United states and of those imprisoned, around the world, they are ten times more likely to be suffering from a mental illness (Mills, 2007).
The lethal injection executions illustrates a constitutional violation of the branch 's overreach as described by the 8th amendment due to its cases bring either successful in the execution or providing sufferable pain to death row inmates. One of the current problems in the Judicial branch is the use of lethal injection towards execution sessions. Lethal injection is an injection that is administered for the purpose of euthanasia and capital punishment. There are two methods of lethal injection today, one using a three drug protocol and the 2nd being the large dose of barbiturate. Lethal injection is used for capital punishment as it follows the 8th amendment we have today.
This is because the 8th amendment states, “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” Giving someone who has mental disease the death penalty would be seen as a cruel and unusual punishment. Some may argue that even though the killer did murder the man, he did not show any empathy for what he did. This can be proven otherwise because of the fact that someone under the influence of mental disease may not always be able to control their actions. In similar cases such as the Walton vs. Virginia, and Eley vs. Ohio, the same practice was used.
If juveniles have a mental disability they should not be sentenced to life in prison without parole, especially when it is a non homicidal crime. When children experience neglect and abuse it can take them down a dark path, which often leads to jail. Joe Sullivan's case is an example of this. As a child, Joe suffered from childhood abuse, which included both physical and sexual assault. This abuse took a toll on his mental state and led him to be easily manipulated by older kids.
The Eighth Amendment is all about punishment. In the Amendment it states, “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”, as well as allowing the Death Penalty. I believe this Amendment is right. Because of the fact that cruel and unusual punishment wouldn’t be fun, I believe the Death Penalty should be legal, and excessive fines would be crushing to our economy. Cruel and unusual punishment would not be fun.
Most mentally ill people who are convicted on capital charges should not be executed, for three such reasons. Firstly, the executions would violate equal protection of the laws in any jurisdiction in which execution of children and people with mental illness of any kind that psychologically cannot fully comprehend what they are committing is barred. Secondly, many death sentences imposed on people with mental illness violate due process more so because their mental illness is treated by the aggravating factor, either directly or to create a separate aggravating circumstance. Thirdly, many mentally ill offenders, who are sentenced to death, will be so impaired to what is fully going on at the time of execution that they can not emotionally understand the significance of their punishment. Thus, they cannot be executed under the eighth amendment; Regarding this, the latter conclusion is required even if they are cured through some sort of treatment.
This line from the article explains that the court didn’t think it was right to execute minors, but still did it in certain cases. In addition, the court found it unconstitutional to execute other categories of people. The article states,”(The Court had also, in 2002, held it to be a violation of the Eighth Amendment to execute mentally retarded persons.) " This excerpt points out that it is illegal to execute people with mental disabilities. Lastly, the court had to decide whether this case violated the Eighth Amendment.
Although the death penalty in Texas costs about three times more than life in prison without parole, it is reserved as the punishment of robbing another of their rights to life, freedom, and safety (Deathpenaltyinfo). It is a valid question to wonder why we should spare the life of one, opting to provide for all of their basics needs when they without question robbed another of their rights to life, freedom, and safety through murder or another cruel action. The case of Andre Thomas raised questions of whether or not the mentally incompetent should be eligible for the death penalty. Thomas murdered two children and the wife he was separated from, maintaining that the act was dictated by God. Statements by Thomas conveyed that he knew that what he had done was wrong after he had after committing the crime.
Some factors that can influence how a test is taken is by who the test is reaching out to. The test should not only be developmentally appropriate, but it should be designed for different ethics and races. The book mentions how they take the “norm” score of the testers and compare future test takers to that score, but how we know that the norm fits everyone? Another factor is that the tests punish economically disadvantaged children and children who do not speak English as their first language. Children can be stressed when taking the test, causing them to overthink the situation.