Recommendations
As already stated, and as illustrated in Appendix 2, experts in the USA on law and mental health continue to develop criteria for establishing which defendants suffering from mental illness should be exempted from the death penalty under an "Atkins extension". Amnesty International will join in working to promote legislation on this issue at state level in the USA. Meanwhile, the organization will continue to seek total abolition of the death penalty in the United States, as it does worldwide.
All government officials should promote the United Nations Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental Illness and the Improvement of Mental Health Care, including:
- All persons have the right to the best available mental health care, which shall be part of the health and social care system (Principle 1.1);
- All persons with a mental illness, or who are being treated as such persons, shall be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person (Principle 1.2);
- ... persons serving sentences of imprisonment for criminal offences, or who are otherwise detained in the course of criminal proceedings or investigations against them, and who are determined to have a mental illness or who it is believed may have such an illness… should receive the best available mental health care as provided in Principle 1. These Principles shall apply to them to the fullest extent possible... (Principle 20.1 and 20.2).
In addition:
The Federal Government, particularly the President, members of Congress, and the Justice Department, should:- Ensure that no federal prosecutor pursues a death sentence against any defendant with serious mental illness;
- Make public statements at every opportunity against the execution of people with serious mental illness;
- Impose a moratorium on federal executions;
- Legislate to abolish the federal death penalty;
- Engage in a program of public education about the reality of capital punishment with the aim of encouraging abolition in individual states.
State legislatures should:
- In consultation with experts in the field of criminal law and mental health, adopt legislation prohibiting the execution of people with serious mental illness or other impairments other than mental retardation at the time of the crime or the time of execution;
- Adopt legislation prohibiting the execution of people with mental retardation, in line with Atkins v. Virginia, if this has not already been done;
- Ensure adequate funding for indigent capital defense;
- Support or adopt measures imposing a moratorium on executions;
- Legislate to abolish the death penalty.
Prosecutors should:
- Participate in training programs to assist them in recognizing the signs and symptoms of serious mental illness and other impairments;
- Reject pursuit of the death penalty against anyone in cases where there is credible evidence of their serious mental illness or other impairment at the time of the crime;
- Become familiar with and adhere to the United Nations Guidelines on the Role of Prosecutors, and on international human rights law and standards in general, in particular the UN Safeguards Guaranteeing Protection of the Rights of Those Facing the Death Penalty, and respect recommendations of international human rights bodies such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights;
- Reject unreliable psychiatric testimony that claims to be able to predict future dangerousness of capital defendants.
Capital defense lawyers should:
- Attend training programs aimed at helping them to recognize signs and symptoms of serious mental illness and other impairments, and how more effectively to defend such individuals from the death penalty;
Clemency authorities should:
- Ensure that no one with a claim of serious mental illness or other impairment is executed;
- Promote a moratorium on executions.
Prison authorities should:
- Ensure that all people with mental illness on death row receive appropriate treatment, and that anyone suffering severe psychosis is removed from death row.
Mental health professional bodies should:
- Exercise vigilance to ensure that the ethics of their profession are not violated by the death penalty system;
- Communicate concern to the authorities where widely accepted principles which protect people with mental illnesses are breached;
