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 defenses, 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" demeanor 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 defense 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."