May 28, 2004
The Honorable Brad Henry
Governor of the State of Oklahoma
2300 North Lincoln Blvd., Rm. 212
Oklahoma City, OK 73105
Dear Governor Henry:
I am writing to request that you commute Robert Leroy Bryan's death sentence to life in prison. Mr. Bryan is currently scheduled for execution on June 8, 2004. Because of the unjust combination of Mr. Bryan's significant mental deficiencies and Mr. Bryan's attorneys' shockingly ineffective defense, his execution fails to satisfy the social purposes served by the death penalty of retribution and deterrence. Executing a delusional individual with diagnosed mental deficiencies does not benefit society.
Public opinion is against executing mentally ill people. According to a 2002 Gallup Poll, 75 percent of the public surveyed opposed executing the mentally ill. It is time to halt executions of the mentally ill and examine why the mentally ill end up on death row.
Mental illness prevented Mr. Bryan from effectively participating in his own defense at trial and at sentencing. Mr. Bryan suffers from delusions, an organic brain disorder, and chronic paranoid schizophrenia. Both psychiatrists and a Single Photon Emission Computerized Tomography (SPECT) scan have confirmed Mr. Byran's deficiencies. As a result of his mental illness, Mr. Bryan provided a fantastical description of the murder to each of his successive attorneys. While all attorneys conceded Mr. Bryan's description of the murder stemmed from no factual basis and medical experts found Mr. Bryan unable to assist his defense, they nonetheless still relied on him and took direction from him during his representation.
After conviction, the jury could have imposed a sentence of life in prison or a death sentence. At the direction of Mr. Bryan, his defense counsel failed to introduce mitigating evidence of Mr. Bryan's mental illness at the penalty phase of the case. Mr. Bryan received the death penalty. Judge Robert Henry of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, previously Oklahoma's Attorney General, found the attorney's failure to introduce mitigating evidence of Mr. Bryan's mental illness to be ""clearly ineffective.""
In death penalty cases the penalty phase serves as a procedural check to ensure only the most deserving and unsympathetic defendants receive the death penalty. Unlike all other individuals facing the death penalty in Oklahoma, Mr. Bryan was denied the opportunity to introduce mitigating evidence of his mental illness for consideration in his sentencing. For Oklahoma's criminal justice system to work effectively, it must produce just outcomes that invite the trust and respect of its citizens. Executing Mr. Bryan after his attorney failed to introduce the substantial and available evidence of his mental illness would result in a miscarriage of justice for all Oklahomans.
Although the ACLU opposes capital punishment in all cases as a barbarous anachronism and a violation of the Constitution's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, we are ever more convinced that the sentence in this case is unfair and urge you to grant clemency for a mentally ill defendant who received inadequate assistance of counsel.
Sincerely,
Rachel King, State Campaign Coordinator
ACLU Capital Punishment Project
Joann Bell, Executive Director
ACLU of Oklahoma