NCJ Number
143878
Date Published
1993
Length
213 pages
Annotation
This volume examines the case of Florida death row inmate Alvin Ford, which led the United States Supreme Court to rule in 1986 that executions of severely psychotic death row inmates violate the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Abstract
Ford arrived on death row in 1975 after being convicted of killing a police officer in Ft. Lauderdale. For his first 6 years on death row, he was active and involved in day-to- day prison life. His mental condition began to deteriorate when his first death warrant was signed in 1981. He gradually displayed all the classic signs of thought disorder typical of schizophrenia. The analysis focuses on several issues, including how to define mental illness for purposes of exemption from execution, how mental health professionals should evaluate competence for execution, how to handle disagreements among mental health professionals regarding a defendant's mental health, and what to do with inmates who are found to be incompetent. The analysis concludes that capital punishment does little to affect crime rates, is imposed in an inconsistent manner, is expensive in all cases, and is probably more expensive for mentally ill offenders and mentally retarded offenders than for other offenders. Chapter notes, photographs, appended list of cases, index, and 235 references