International Day against Death penalty 2014
Mental illness and innocence
IN FOCUS
READ ABOUT THE STUNNING CASE OF DARLIE LYNN ROUTIER:
Could anyone else other than a seriously mentally ill person
have murdered THE two children WHO SHE LOVED?
Darlie Lynn Routier is currently on death row in Texas. She was charged with stabbing her five-year-old son to death in the early morning hours of June 6, 1996. She was further accused of stabbing to death her six-year-old son Devon in the same transaction while her husband Darin and infant son Drake were asleep upstairs.
Darlie Lynn Routier was seriously injured in the same brutal attack, suffering multiple knife wounds and, her neck had been slashed. A necklace she was wearing at the time had became embedded in the wound, and, had to be surgically removed.
Darlie Lynn Routier has always maintained her innocence in the murder of her children. Her family is completely convinced of her innocence, including her husband, her mother, her mother in law, as well as those who know her.
Some have reported that Darlie’s case is very similar to another mother who was wrongfully convicted of stabbing her 10 year-old son. On Oct. 13, 1987, in Lawrenceville, IL, Julie Rea was awaked at 4 a.m. to the sound of her son’s scream. When she rushed to his room across the hall, in the dark of the night, she collided with a child serial killer, Tommy Lynn Sells (see further below story of Tommy Lynn Sells). Read more on the case here
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Darlie, today on death row for a crime in which she maintains her complete innocence, wrote:
I close my eyes and it seems just like yesterday the boys were racing outside to play with their friends; so innocent, so alive, so very precious. My mind plays back like an old movie first steps and birthday parties. I have so many memories each more precious than the next.
There is a song by Celine Dion titled "I'm everything because you loved me". I have sang this song for my precious baby boys. Now I want each of you to listen to the words of this song. This is what your love and support has done for me.
Definitions: What is mental illness?
Mental illness:
The presence of disorders of thought, mood or behaviour that may impede the affected person's capacity to behave rationally and in conformity with the law.
Intellectual disability: Formerly known as“mental retardation”:
A condition in which a person’s mental capacity has not developed during childhood and adolescence leaving the person less ble than average to adapt to independent life and decision-making.
Personality disorder (in particular, antisocial or borderline personality disorder): This is not a mental illness that can be treated with drugs or therapy but rather constitutes a behavioral condition in which the affected person can lack empathy and understanding of others and can disregards social and legal conventions.
The presence of disorders of thought, mood or behaviour that may impede the affected person's capacity to behave rationally and in conformity with the law.
Intellectual disability: Formerly known as“mental retardation”:
A condition in which a person’s mental capacity has not developed during childhood and adolescence leaving the person less ble than average to adapt to independent life and decision-making.
Personality disorder (in particular, antisocial or borderline personality disorder): This is not a mental illness that can be treated with drugs or therapy but rather constitutes a behavioral condition in which the affected person can lack empathy and understanding of others and can disregards social and legal conventions.
CASE STUDY1: Was it possible to prevent serial killer Tommy Lynn Sells from committing 22 murders?
Sells and his twin sister, Tammy Jean, contracted meningitis when they were 18 months old; Tammy died from the illness. Shortly thereafter, Sells was sent to live with his aunt, in Missouri where he lived until he was five years old. When Sells was eight, he began spending time with a man who was later suspected of child molestation.
Throughout his life, Sells drank heavily, did drugs and was imprisoned several times.
He was a psychopath diagnosed with co-morbid borderline personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder with schizoid features, substance use disorder (severe opioid, cannabis, amphetamines, and alcohol dependence), bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, and psychosis.
He is believed to have committed over 22 murders, over a 19 years time span between 1980 and 1999
He went to the Missouri Department of Corrections on a 2 year sentence for felony theft.
After being confined 8 month, he was released on parole on 12/18/1985. He then returned as a parole violator with a new conviction of driving under the influence. He was confined 16 months and discharged.
The Wyoming Department of Corrections had then Sells on a 2 year sentence for vehicle theft.
He was then confined 16 months and discharged.
In May 1992, Sells knifed, and beat a woman with a piano stool in West Virginia. In June 1993, he was sentenced to 2 to 10 years imprisonment for malicious wounding. While serving this sentence, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
He was released in 1997.
Should Tommy Lynn Sells have been more closely supervised (or at all released)?
On 12/31/1999, Sells entered a Del Rio residence occupied by a 13 year old white girl and a 10 year old white girl. Sells slashed the throat of the 13 years old and stabbed her multiple times, resulting in her death.
He then slashed the throat of the 10 year old girl (who survived the attack).
He was arrested early 2000 and executed in 2014.
It is assessed that a death penalty cost from indictment to execution costs 1.2 M$ in Texas,
whilst imprisonment for life cost for 40 years costs $693 500 (source DPIC).
Wouldn't it have been cheaper to keep Tommy Lynn Sells in prison for life
and use the savings to help build a psychiatric institution, for example to host
other people like him, who might be currently in the streets, at risk of harming other children?
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HOW TO REDUCE CRIME BY ADDRESSING THE ISSUE OF MENTAL ILLNESS
Here is a brief overview of independent research and recommendations given in the US on the topic of mental illness and criminal justice, given for the purpose of the debate:
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the US, the Department of Justice found that fully 16% of the people in the nation's corrections systems were mentally ill, but that only 60% of those reported receiving any mental health treatment. Below are highlights of the reports, plus links to three studies that analyze the problem and suggest reforms.
• An estimated 283,800 inmates -- or 16% of all incarcerated individuals -- reported either a mental condition or an overnight stay in a mental hospital, and were identified as mentally ill. • Only 60% of the mentally ill in state and federal prisons reported receiving mental health treatment since being incarcerated. • About two-thirds of the inmates in state facilities who receive counseling or psychotropic medications were in facilities that didn't specialize in providing mental health services in confinement. • Half of the mentally ill inmates in state and federal facilities reported having three or more prior sentences. • Mentally ill state prison inmates were more than twice as likely as other inmates to report living on the street or in a shelter within the last 12 months. • Thirty-three percent of federal inmates identified as mentally ill had been convicted of a violent offense, compared to 13 percent of other inmates. Sources: Bureau of Justice Statistics, "Mental Health and Treatment of Inmates and Probationers," July 1999; Bureau of Justice Statistics, "Mental Health Treatment in State Prisons, 2000," July 2001 - Find out more: "Mental Health and Treatment of Inmates and Probationers" (PDF) "Mental Health Treatment in State Prisons, 2000" (PDF) |
In 2008, the New York State Mental health - Criminal Justice Panel issued a report and recommendations. it states:
Panel members identified many ways in which both the mental health and criminal justice systems could improve their ability to help adults and adolescents with serious mental illnesses. The challenges fall into four broad categories: 1) poor coordination, fragmented oversight and lack of accountability in the mental health treatment system; 2) inconsistencies in the quality of care within the mental health treatment system; 3) limited capacity to share information within and between the mental health and criminal and juvenile justice systems; and 4) insufficient training, supports and tools to identify and engage justice-involved individuals with mental illnesses. FIND OUT RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE PANEL HERE (2008) Here are some of the key recommendations made that would help take care of the mentally ill people better. 1) Establish Care Monitoring Teams for High-Need Adults 2) Issue and Monitor the Use of Standards of Care for Mental Health Clinics – including guidelines for assessing risk of violence to self or others –for mental health clinics serving adults 3) Increase Information Available to the New York City Police Department 4) Increase Monitoring of Individuals Determined to be Not Responsible for Criminal Conduct due to "Mental Disease or Defect 5) Expand New Mental Health Courts and Alternatives-to-Incarceration |
CASE STUDY 2: Henry Mc Collum and his half brother Leon Brown, both diagnosed with intellectual disabilities,
confessed to crimes they did not commit. Both were exonerated in 2014.
North Carolina’s longest-serving death row inmate Henry Mc Collum and his half-brother Leon Brown (who was serving a life sentence) have been exonerated and released from prison in 2014 after spending more than 30 years behind bars for a rape and murder they did not commit.
Find out more in The Guardian
