Mental Illness and the Death Penalty
The ACLU works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.
The Latest
Explore More
What's at Stake
“The risk that the death penalty will be imposed in spite of factors which may call for a less severe penalty … is enhanced, not only by the possibility of false confessions, but also by the lesser ability of mentally retarded defendants to make a persuasive showing of mitigation in the face of prosecutorial evidence of one or more aggravating factors. … Mentally retarded defendants in the aggregate face a special risk of wrongful execution.”
—U.S. Supreme Court in Atkins v. Virginia (2004)
“The risk that the death penalty will be imposed in spite of factors which may call for a less severe penalty … is enhanced, not only by the possibility of false confessions, but also by the lesser ability of mentally retarded defendants to make a persuasive showing of mitigation in the face of prosecutorial evidence of one or more aggravating factors. … Mentally retarded defendants in the aggregate face a special risk of wrongful execution.”
—U.S. Supreme Court in Atkins v. Virginia (2004)