Capital Punishment | Teen Ink

Capital Punishment

January 14, 2016
By Anonymous

Capital Crimes or offenses could result in punishment by death row especially for those with mental illnesses. Since 2000 338 people have gotten the death penalty in 2 states alone. In 2015 there were 71 stays for execution. No one should be killed when they have mental illness because it is a discrimination. Treatment can be provided for those with mental illness. Those who suffer from this mental illness can be vulnerable to police pressure so they may end up giving false confession. Many with mental illness can are not able to control what they are doing when they are committing their crime. So now current U.S efforts to exempt those who have a true mental illnesses are murderers. 

The death penalty to those with mental illness is turning the 5 of 10% of the U.S that agrees to murdering innocent people murderers.  The death penalty in the U.S is becoming a discrimination(INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT)T).If the U.S is using this against those people then they are as much as apart of the crime as the suspect.Thomas Provenzano was executed by lethal injection by the state of Florida on June 21, 2000.  Turns out he had a mad history of mental illness and schizophrenia.Mental Health America estimates that 6 of 10% of all death row inmates suffer from severe mental illness(“Mental Illness and the Death Penalty | Death Penalty Information Center”). They say that mental health conditions can influence individuals state of mind when they are committing a crime. They makes them helpless when they get charged.

Together with a treatment team those who have been diagnosed can develop a well rounded and integrated recovery. Most mental illnesses take time to treat , but many make it through without to much problems.(“NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness”)Many people have gone through a lot of these treatments after getting out of trial and most have been very successful. There are many tools that can improve the experience on the road to wellness medication, counseling, and social support.(“NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness”) Treatment phases will be different for most people depending on their mental illness. Being in a new state of mind can help people forget about their crimes.

Police can make those who suffer from mental illness vulnerable and they are most likely to give false statement confessions. There are two phases. The first phase is deciding whether you are guilty or innocent. The second decides what your sentence is going to be.(INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT)T) My opposition is not going to stop unless government or the U.S wants it to. Scientist have studied that the characteristics associated with mental illness are lead to false confessions.(“Mental Illness and the Death Penalty | Death Penalty Information Center”)  These people keep facing the same police integration and they begin to waive most of their rights that can help them. Personality disorder has one of the main characteristics of pathological lying.(“Website”) It is even worse when you aren't even in the state of mind for trial. Under pressure they compact on themselves and lie.

Mental illness is not an excuse for killing or any crime. You can not commit a capital crime and then try and cover it up with your mental illness. Those who suffer from mental illness at times can not control what they are doing when they commit the crime. It is a discrimination to those who get death row for doing the exact same thing without mental illness. Just because the defendant had a illness or delusion disorder doesn't make them incompetent to have a trial. Just because they have mental illness doesn't make them exempt from punishment. They can not go back to the same stage of normal living because when the damages are done you people just think of we have to kill them now. You're just as much of a killer as the executor. 

The U.S just can't exempt people will mental illness from the death penalty. At the end of the day all you are really doing is making someone else's life a world of pain by killing their loved ones mental illness or not. The death penalty is bound to be abolished. 
                                                                    Works Cited
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT. “National Coalition to Abolish The Death Penalty.” www.ncadp.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Jan. 2016.
“Mental Illness and the Death Penalty | Death Penalty Information Center.” N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Jan. 2016.
“NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness.” NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Jan. 2016.
---. NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Jan. 2016.
“Website.” N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Jan. 2016.
 


The author's comments:

mental illness isnt anything you play with.


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