Death Penatly for mentally ill.doc - Mauricio Vexler...

Mauricio Vexler
Mauricio Vexler
ESL 26.04
Draft 3
Death Penalty for Mentally Ill Murders
Over sixty people diagnosed as mentally ill have been executed in the United States
since 1983. Most of them reported brain damage due to illness or sexual abuse in the past.
Death Penalty for mentally ill murders is a very controversial topic, because it is said that
untreated brain disorders can cause individuals to act inappropriately or kill. Many are against
the death penalty for mentally ill murders, because they believe that mentally ill murders are
not as guilty for their crimes because they are ill. The death penalty for mentally ill murders is
the solution to lessen the amount of murders in our society and to bring justice to the victim’s
families. The death penalty is a deterrent for murder.
This painful illness cannot be used like as excuse to evade the respective punishment for
a crime. The family’s grief will not be appeased if the mental ill murder does not fulfill his
punishment. They do not know what they but it could be motive to make other crimes in the
future. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, “mental illness is defined as various
conditions characterized by impairment of individuals normal cognitive, emotional or behavioral
functioning, and caused by social, psychological, biochemical, genetic or other factors such as
infection or head trauma.” To consider the death penalty for mentally ill murders is debatable,
because there are people who are against and who are in favor of it. People in favor believe the
death penalty for mentally ill murders provides closure to the victim’s families who suffered for
the loss of their loved ones, if provided the possibility of parole; it would give the mentally ill
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Mauricio Vexler
murders another chance to kill. We can think the death penalty like a stop of more crimes of
mentally ill murders. People against the death penalty believe that mentally ill murders do not
know what they are doing due to their condition. I believe that the family’s victim do not have
the same idea about it, because they want justice for their known murdered. The mentally ill kill
without reason. They also believe it acts against the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the
Bill of Rights.
Many people believe that the prison is a good school where the criminal Where the
criminals can be regenerated. But the probability that a mentally ill murder will learn in prison
or in a mental hospital is minimal and if released into society, he/she is more likely to commit a
crime. A clear example is the case of Kelsey Patterson who was imprisoned in several
opportunities and always with the same result. Patterson’s first contact with the law came in
1978, when he was arrested for aggravated assault on a police officer. In 1980, Patterson was
charged with the shooting of Noel Lane. A jury found Patterson incompetent to stand trial and
Dr. James Grigson diagnosed him with paranoia schizophrenia. The charges were later
dismissed. In 1983, Patterson was charged with criminal attempt to commit murder to one of