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The Problem With How Courts Decide Whether Someone Can Be Executed

“The criminal justice system is unequipped to grapple with the complexity of mental illness.“ In this Slate.com reporting by Maria Armstrong-Lopez, I learned that the 2007 Supreme Court case Panetti v. Quarterman set the standard for when the government can execute someone with severe mental illness. I also learned that, fifteen years later, the state of Texas governor Greg […]

Benjamin Cole

With Execution Looming, Judge Denies Competency Hearing for Oklahoma Death-Row Prisoner Death Penalty Info. Center: “Cole’s defense team issued a statement from assistant federal defender Tom Hird in response to the ruling, saying, “Benjamin Cole is incapacitated by his mental illness to the point of being essentially non-functional. His own attorneys have not been able […]

Nikolas Cruz’s defense says his brain was ‘poisoned’ by birth mother’s addictions in death penalty trial

Infographic explaining effects of alcohol use during pregnancy

Should someone with an intellectual/developmental disability like Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD, formerly Fetal Alcohol Syndrome) ever be sentenced to death? The defense for Parkland shooter, Nikolas Cruz, is arguing that due to intellectual disability caused by FASD, in conjunction with severe mental illness symptoms, it is not acceptable to issue a death penalty sentence. […]