THROUGH FOREIGN EYES
Mental Health Care for Death Row Prisoners
In January 1995, Mario Marquez was executed on the evening of G.W. Bush's inauguration as Governor. Marquez was suffering severe brain damage, had an IQ of 60 and the skills of a 7-year-old. Ricky Ray Rector, the Arkansas inmate executed while Bill Clinton was governor and running for president, also had a low child's IQ and mental problems. Oliver Cruz was executed on the 9th of August when G.W. Bush was running for president.
History is strangely repeating itself. Obviously, the death penalty became an important issue in the recent presidential campaign, proving that even a "compassionate" candidate is tough, strong. I am not an expert in mental retardation, but it seems evident that the mentally retarded may confess to things they have not done in order to please the questioner or out of fright. Oliver Cruz, in the days following his crime, told several people what he had done, and when he heard that policemen were looking for him, phoned them and volunteered a confession. He also gave blood and saliva samples strongly tying him to the crime.
Can a mentally retarded man understand what a plea bargain is? Would a plea bargain even be offered to him? Or would it be easier to offer that chance to an accomplice? That's exactly what happened to Oliver Cruz. Cruz's accomplice, Jerry Kemplin, like Oliver, was initially indicted for capital murder, but didn't confess. He knew that he didn't have to give evidence against himself; he knew he was the one capable of accepting a plea bargain, so he got it in exchange for testimony against Cruz. No one asked if Cruz was interested. He could barely read and write, had been in special education classes in school, and was classified by psychologists for the defense as mentally retarded. The Army rejected him after he failed the entrance exam three times! So Kemplin was sentenced to 65 years, with possibility of parole after serving a quarter of his term. Cruz was executed! The retarded one has been killed by the State of Texas while the non-retarded one will soon be eligible for release. Is this justice?
Gov. George W. Bush calls himself a "compassionate conservative"? He has opposed laws that would prohibit the execution of the mentally retarded, but there are no real statistics about the number of mentally retarded prisoners on death row, but 34 mentally retarded offenders have been executed since the Supreme Court reinstituted the death penalty in 1976. Five of those were in Texas. Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials said they don't know how many of the 453 people on death row have below normal IQs. How many of their appointed lawyers mentioned that important fact during the trial and the appeals? Mentally retarded prisoners are not able to defend themselves during trial, nor compensate for work undone by their lawyer. Anthony Porter, sentenced to death with an IQ of 51, was 48 hours away from execution when the State Supreme Court granted him a reprieve so that his mental retardation could be investigated. This reprieve made it possible to prove that he was innocent-and he is free now!
I was the penpal of Robert Carter, a kind young man, who also had an IQ of 51. I visited with him four times, and he was executed two years ago, between two presidential elections. Obviously a child, he talked as a child and acted as a child, but he never would have said that he was mentally retarded or "stupid." He had a great need to show that he was "normal" as do all those who are called "stupid," "idiots," or "lunatics" since they were young.
Do you know that Texas offers 5 separate procedural protections for capital murder defendants who may have any form of mental incapacity? First, no person may be tried unless he is mentally competent to understand the charges against him and to assist his lawyers at trial. Next, if even one juror believes that there is reasonable doubt that the defendant had the mental ability to form the intent to commit the crime, the defendant cannot be convicted. Third, a defendant must show that he was mentally unable to know his conduct was wrong. Fourth, in the punishment phase, a defendant may present to the jury evidence of mental impairment to show that he does not deserve the death penalty. Finally, a death-row inmate cannot be executed unless he is mentally competent, understanding he is going to be executed and the reasons for the execution. But there is no justice unless laws are emphasized.
No, Robert! No, Mario! No, Oliver! You shouldn't have been executed, not only because your IQ was lower than the medium level, but because the death penalty has no meaning, because the death penalty is an old-time punishment, because the death penalty is only for a retarded country!