Capital Punishment and the Mentally Disabled

America has moved very far in embacing citizens who live with intellectual disabilities or with psychiatric disorders. One sign of progress has been the quiet change in our capital punishment system. The Supreme Court and most states have altered policies that have produced many unjust executions of individuals who committed serious crimes, but who were not fully responsible for their actions due to their disability.

Texas's appalling capital punishment system has been a real exception to this humane trend. (The above picture is a letter home from a convicted murderer named Bobby Woods. He was executed in Texas less than two years ago.) My piece in the Nation has more. The first few paragraphs appear before the fold:

Headed to a business meeting, I was recently delayed at the door of Cook County’s huge juvenile detention center. A man in front of me was slowing things down by walking through the X-ray machine carrying keys and other metal objects on him. I was puzzled that no one seemed especially annoyed, until I spotted the Buzz Lightyear lunchbox he had placed on the conveyor belt. When intellectual disabilities are that obvious and childlike, even gruff sheriff’s deputies and the embattled relatives of incarcerated youth are generally patient and kind.

Intellectual disability does not always manifest itself so harmlessly. Nor is there always a clear boundary between normal function and cognitive impairment. That same detention center houses many young people suffering from a variety of intellectual limitations—limitations which may have contributed to their crimes.

Such limitations pose practical difficulties for detention center staff, who must supervise, care for and protect these young men and women in a tough environment. Detained youth with low IQs do not always understand facility rules. They may need simple and immediate rewards and punishments to behave appropriately. Living in such close quarters, they may irritate other detained youth. They become easy targets for bullying. They may also impulsively lash out, sometimes with tragic results. This is a widespread challenge in both adult and juvenile corrections across the country.

Which brings me to the ugliest, utterly unrehearsed outburst in last night’s Republican debate....

More here.