International and U.S. Law on the Execution
of Those with Mental Retardation
Under US law, the execution of the insane - someone who does not understand the reason for, or reality of his or her punishment - violates the US Constitution (Ford v Wainwright, 1986).
Nevertheless, the minimal standards for establishing legal insanity in the US capital justice system means that people with serious mental illness have been executed. For example Thomas Provenzano, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia from before the crime, was executed in Florida in June 2000. The judge who found him competent for execution did so despite agreeing that Provenzano believed he was being killed because he was Jesus Christ.
The international community seeks a far more progressive approach. Repeated resolutions at the UN Commission on Human Rights have urged retentionist countries not to use the death penalty against anyone "suffering from any form of mental disorder." The latest is below:
From Question of the Death penalty 2002-77
(e) To observe the safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty and to comply fully with their international obligations, in particular with those under article 36 of the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, particularly the right to receive information on consular assistance within the context of a legal procedure;
(f) Not to impose the death penalty on a person suffering from any form of mental disorder or to execute any such person;
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