LAW REVIEWS: Ethics of Mental Incompetence and Death Row

A new article by Professors Brian D. Shannon (pictured) and Victor R. Scarano examines the ethical implications of mental incompetence among death row inmates, particularly with regards to forcible medication. According to the authors, cases involving incompetence to be executed and forced medication pit "the ethical duties of the medical and legal professions in opposition and [cast] a shadow over the legitimate and appropriate intentions and professional responsibilities of physicians and lawyers." While the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that mentally incompetent prisoners cannot be executed, only lower courts have ruled on the issue of forcing death row inmates to take medication with the purpose of rendering them competent for execution. The article concludes with a legislative recommendation that would "obviate the ethical dilemma" of forcible medication: "upon a determination by the trial court that the defendant is incompetent to be executed (and following any appeal), the court should vacate the death sentence and substitute a life sentence without the possibility of parole," thus allowing psychiatrists to "proceed to treat the symptoms of the inmate's serious mental illness, without the ethical concern that such treatment could lead to the inmate's execution."

(B. Shannon and V. Scarano, "Incompetency to Be Executed: Continuing Ethical Challenges & Time for a Change in Texas," Texas Tech Law Review, Vol. 45, 2013.)

See Mental Illness and Death Row.

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Article: Psychometrics from the Ground Up 9: Standard Scores and Why We Need Them

Psychometrics from the Ground Up 9: Standard Scores and Why We Need Them
http://assessingpsyche.wordpress.com/2012/09/24/psychometrics-from-the-ground-up-9-standard-scores-and-why-we-need-them/

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Article: Top-Ten Recent SSRN Downloads

Top-Ten Recent SSRN Downloads
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/crimprof_blog/2012/09/top-ten-recent-ssrn-downloads-3.html

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Article: Retardation Nonsense

Retardation Nonsense
http://www.crimeandconsequences.com/crimblog/2012/09/retardation-nonsense.html

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Law Review Article: Execution by accident: Evidentiary & constitutional problems with the "childhood onset" requirement in Atkins claims (Mulroy, 2012)

A copy of the above titled article can be accessed at the link provided.  It has been added to the Law Review Article blog sidebar at the ICDP blog.

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Article: Mulroy on the "Childhood Onset" Requirement in Atkins Claims

Mulroy on the "Childhood Onset" Requirement in Atkins Claims
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/crimprof_blog/2012/09/mulroy-on-the-childhood-onset-requirement-in-atkins-claims.html

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"Challenging the Death Penalty with Statistics: Furman, McCleskey and a Single County Case Study"

The title of this post is the title of this notable new paper on SSRN authored by Steven Shatz and Terry Dalton. Here is the abstract:

In the forty year history of the Supreme Court's modern death penalty jurisprudence, two cases — Furman v. Georgia (1972) and McCleskey v. Kemp (1987) — stand out above all others.  Both cases turned on the Court's consideration of empirical evidence, but they appear to have reached divergent — even altogether inconsistent — results.  In Furman, the Court relied on statistical evidence that the death penalty was infrequently applied to death-eligible defendants to hold that the Georgia death penalty scheme was unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment.  In McCleskey, the Court, despite being presented with statistical evidence that race played a significant role in death-charging and death-sentencing in Georgia, upheld the revised Georgia scheme and McCleskey's death sentence against Equal Protection and Eighth Amendment challenges.  The McCleskey decision called into question the use of statistical evidence to challenge the death penalty.

In the present article, we report on a unique empirical study of the administration of the death penalty in Alameda County, California — the largest single-county death penalty study and the only study to examine intra-county geographic disparities in death-charging and death-sentencing.  The data set, drawn from 473 first degree murder convictions for murders occurring over a 23-year period, compares death-charging and death-sentencing in the two halves of the county.  During the study period, the two halves differed significantly in racial makeup — the population of North County was over 30% African-American, and of South County less than 5% African-American; and the two halves differed in the race of homicide victims — in North County, African-Americans were homicide victims roughly 4.5 times as often as Whites, while, in South County, Whites were homicide victims more than three times as often as African-Americans.

The study reveals that there were statistically significant disparities in death-charging and death-sentencing according to the location of the murder: the Alameda County District Attorney was substantially more likely to seek death, and capital juries, drawn from a county-wide jury pool, were substantially more likely to impose death, for murders that occurred in South County.  We argue that, McCleskey notwithstanding, statistical evidence such as the "race of neighborhood" disparities found in the present study should support constitutional challenges to the death penalty under both the Equal Protection Clause and the Eighth Amendment.

http://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2012/09/challenging-the-death-penalty-with-statistics-furman-mccleskey-and-a-single-county-case-study.html

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Bennion on the Insanity Defense and Graham v. Florida

Elizabeth Bennion (Brigham Young University - J. Reuben Clark Law School) has posted Death is Different No Longer: Abolishing the Insanity Defense is Cruel and Unusual Under Graham v. Florida (DePaul Law Review, Vol. 61, pp. 1-56, 2011) on SSRN....

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/crimprof_blog/2012/09/bennion-on-the-insanity-defense-and-graham-v-florida.html

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Kovarsky on Habeas

Lee Kovarsky (University of Maryland, Francis King Carey School of Law) has posted Habeas Verite (Tulsa Law Review, Vol. 47, No. 1, 2011, p. 13) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Three recent books from varied academic disciplines demonstrate that...

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/crimprof_blog/2012/09/kovarsky-on-habeas.html

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Historical review of WISC to WISC-IV

This article is an open access article and thus I am providing a link to a copy.

The article helps users understand the various changes that have occurred in this series, changes which may help explain IQ score differences in individuals who may have taken various versions over time.

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J Am Acad Psychiatry Law Table of Contents for 1 September 2012; Vol. 40, No. 3

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JAAPL Online Table of Contents Alert

A new issue of Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online is available online:

1 September 2012; Vol. 40, No. 3

The below Table of Contents is available online at: http://www.jaapl.org/content/vol40/issue3/index.dtl?etoc

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Editorial

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A Case of Insanity: Diagnostic Relevance in the Shadow of Columbine

Richard Martinez

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 312-317
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/full/40/3/312

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Regular Article

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Postpartum Psychosis and the Courts

Melissa L. Nau, Dale E. McNiel, and Renée L. Binder

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 318-325
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/abstract/40/3/318

Commentary: Postpartum Psychosis, Infanticide, and Insanity—Implications for Forensic Psychiatry

Susan Hatters Friedman and Renée Sorrentino

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 326-332
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/abstract/40/3/326

Transferring Juvenile Defendants From Adult to Juvenile Court: How Maryland Forensic Evaluators and Judges Reach Their Decisions

Ronald F. Means, Lawrence D. Heller, and Jeffrey S. Janofsky

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 333-340
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/abstract/40/3/333

Commentary: Nuances of Reverse-Waiver Evaluations of Adolescents in Adult Criminal Court

Camilla L. Lyons, Adria N. Adams, and Abigail L. Dahan

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 341-347
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/abstract/40/3/341

Risk of Death for Veterans on Release From Prison

Hal S. Wortzel, Patrick Blatchford, Latoya Conner, Lawrence E. Adler, and Ingrid A. Binswanger

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 348-354
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/abstract/40/3/348

Firesetting, Arson, Pyromania, and the Forensic Mental Health Expert

Paul R. S. Burton, Dale E. McNiel, and Renée L. Binder

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 355-365
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/abstract/40/3/355

A Training Program for Defendants With Intellectual Disabilities Who Are Found Incompetent to Stand Trial

Barry W. Wall and Paul P. Christopher

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 366-373
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/abstract/40/3/366

Brief Rating of Aggression by Children and Adolescents (BRACHA): A Reliability Study

Drew Barzman, Douglas Mossman, Loretta Sonnier, and Michael Sorter

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 374-382
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/abstract/40/3/374

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Analysis and Commentary

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CRIPA, Olmstead, and the Transformation of the Oregon Psychiatric Security Review Board

Joseph D. Bloom

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 383-389
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/abstract/40/3/383

Compensation Neurosis: A Too Quickly Forgotten Concept?

Ryan C. W. Hall and Richard C. W. Hall

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 390-398
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/abstract/40/3/390

Firearms Inquiries in Florida: "Medical Privacy" or Medical Neglect?

Brian K. Cooke, Emily R. Goddard, Almari Ginory, Jason A. Demery, and Tonia L. Werner

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 399-408
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/abstract/40/3/399

Sexual Sadism: Avoiding Its Misuse in Sexually Violent Predator Evaluations

Allen Frances and Richard Wollert

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 409-416
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/abstract/40/3/409

A Model Treatment Refusal Procedure for Defendants Found Incompetent to Stand Trial in the Ninth Circuit

Martin Epson, Liban Rodol, and Joseph D. Bloom

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 417-421
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/abstract/40/3/417

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Legal Digest

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Procedures Governing the Involuntary Commitment of a Minor to a Drug and Alcohol Treatment Program

Lacey Levitt and Debra A. Pinals

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 422-424
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/full/40/3/422

Treatment Disclosures in Sex Offender Civil Commitment Evaluations

Derek T. Hess and Ira K. Packer

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 424-426
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/full/40/3/424

Limitations on the Use of Evidence From Evaluations of Competence to Stand Trial in the Penalty Phase

Natalie M. Anumba and Kenneth L. Appelbaum

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 426-429
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/full/40/3/426

Instructions to Jury With Regard to Intoxication and Insanity Defense

Zoe Selhi and Debra A. Pinals

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 429-431
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/full/40/3/429

Expert Testimony on Extreme Emotional Disturbance in Criminal Proceedings

Melissa K. Poole, Raymond K. Molden, and Robert P. Forrest

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 431-433
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/full/40/3/431

Mandatory Admission of Guilt in Sex Offender Programs

Leah G. Brar, Hal S. Wortzel, and Richard Martinez

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 433-435
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/full/40/3/433

Required Sex Offender Treatment and Due Process Rights

Ashley Wheeler, Hal S. Wortzel, and Richard Martinez

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 435-437
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/full/40/3/435

Federal District Court's Ordering of Multiple Competency Examinations

Patricia Westmoreland, Hal S. Wortzel, and Richard Martinez

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 437-439
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/full/40/3/437

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Books and Media

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Handbook of Violence Risk Assessment

Alec W. Buchanan

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 440-442
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/full/40/3/440

The Psychology of Female Violence: Crimes Against the Body

Susan Hatters Friedman

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 442-444
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/full/40/3/442

Contemporary Issues in Family Law and Mental Health

Stewart S. Newman

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 444
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/full/40/3/444

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Letters

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Letters

Matthew D. Lerner, Omar S. Haque, Eli C. Northrup, Lindsay Lawer, and Harold J. Bursztajn

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 445
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/full/40/3/445

Letters

Linda J. Gottlieb

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 445-446
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/full/40/3/445-a

Letters

Judith M. Pilla

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 446
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/full/40/3/446

Letters

Michael H. Stone

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 447
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/full/40/3/447

Reply

Timothy M. Houchin, John Ranseen, Phillip A. K. Hash, and Daniel J. Barnicki

J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2012;40 447-448
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/full/40/3/447-a

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Test post with new blogging iPad app (Blogsy)

Testing one two three? Inserting old brain drawing as test.

 

 

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Intriguing account of how Justices deal with last-minute capital appeals

This new Sidebar column by Adam Liptak in the New York Times, headlined "To Beat the Execution Clock, the Justices Prepare Early," provides details of how SCOTUS handles capital cases as a scheduled execution looms. Here are excerpts:

[The Supreme] court goes to extraordinary lengths to get ready, and its point person is a staff lawyer named Danny Bickell.   "Cases where there is an execution date," he said with a sigh, "that's where I come in."  Mr. Bickell's formal title is emergency applications clerk, but capital defense lawyers have an informal title for him, too.  They call him the death clerk.

In remarks at a conference of lawyers specializing in federal death penalty work..., Mr. Bickell provided a rare inside look at the Supreme Court's oversight of the machinery of death in the United States. It starts with a weekly update.

"Every Monday morning," Mr. Bickell said, "I put out a list to the court of all the executions that are scheduled in the country in the next six or seven weeks, and that gets distributed to all of the justices."

The Supreme Court clerk's office is famously helpful to lawyers who have questions about the court's rules and procedures, but in capital cases it goes further.  "As the date approaches," Mr. Bickell said, referring to impending executions, "I will be in touch with the attorney general's office. I will be in touch with you, if you are representing the inmate, and with the lower courts, trying to figure out what is pending below and what is likely to make its way up to the Supreme Court.

"Once we make contact about 10 days or two weeks before the scheduled execution, I will start asking you to forward me everything that you file in the lower courts.  Once you forward it to me, I forward it on to the law clerks and to the justices so that they can begin reviewing the case."...

[I]ndividual justices almost never rule by themselves on requests to halt executions.  "I would say 99.9 percent of the time the circuit justice is going to refer the application to the full court, and all nine justices are going to act on the application [for a stay]," Mr. Bickell said.

He added that the court always makes sure it can rule on such applications in time for its decision to matter, even in states not inclined to wait for word from the justices.  "The court won't always act on it by 7 o'clock," he said.  That hour, 7 p.m., is important because it is when Texas executes people, Eastern time.  The state has executed seven inmates this year.

"If we're getting to the point where we're short on time — it's 6:30 or 6:15 for a scheduled 7 o'clock execution — I will call my contact" at the state attorney general's office to see "whether they're going to go forward with the execution while the case is pending or if they're going to hold off and wait," Mr. Bickell said.

If the state will not wait, the court will give itself time to think and to vote.  That responsibility again falls to the justice in charge of the judicial circuit.  "If we're told they're going to go forward with it and they're not going to wait," Mr. Bickell said, "the practice of the court recently — this has happened with Justice Thomas a few times last term — is the justice will issue a temporary interim stay." Justice Clarence Thomas oversees the 11th Circuit, which covers Alabama, Florida and Georgia.

http://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2012/09/intriguing-account-of-how-justices-deal-with-last-minute-capital-appeals.html

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Dillard on Competency Doctrine in Capital Cases

Amy Dillard (University of Baltimore - School of Law) has posted Madness Alone Punishes the Madman: The Search for Moral Dignity in the Court's Competency Doctrine as Applied in Capital Cases (Tennessee Law Review, Vol. 79, p. 461, 2012) on...

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/crimprof_blog/2012/09/dillard-on-competency-doctrine-in-capital-cases.html

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ICDP adds social media "share" buttons to bottom of posts

First post to test the automatic inclusions of various "share" social media buttons to the bottom of all posts.  Hope it also works when I post from iPad and iPhone.

Article: Top-Ten Recent SSRN Downloads

Top-Ten Recent SSRN Downloads
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/crimprof_blog/2012/09/top-ten-recent-ssrn-downloads.html

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Article: "Law and Neuroscience: Possibilities for Prosecutors"

"Law and Neuroscience: Possibilities for Prosecutors"
http://kolber.typepad.com/ethics_law_blog/2012/08/law-and-neuroscience-possibilities-for-prosecutors.html

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Article: Insight - Neuroscience in court: My brain made me do it

Insight - Neuroscience in court: My brain made me do it
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/29/us-neuroscience-crime-idUSBRE87S07020120829

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For the psychometrically inclined...and psychologists who should be

Very good food for thought regarding the need for progress in applied psychological measurement.

Double click on image to enlarge.




Posted using BlogPress from Kevin McGrew's iPad
www.themindhub.com

http://www.iqscorner.com/2012/08/for-psychometrically-inclinedand.html

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IQ Score Interpretations in Atkins MR/ID Death Penalty Cases: The Good, Bad and the Ugly

I just uploaded the following PPT presentation to my SlideShare account---IQ Score Interpretation in Atkins MR/ID Death Penalty Cases: The Good, Bad and the Ugly. It was presented this month (Sept, 2012) at the Habeas Assistance Training Seminar. Click here to view.




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Shen on Neuroscience for Prosecutors

Francis X. Shen (University of Minnesota Law School) has posted Law and Neuroscience: Possibilities for Prosecutors (CDAA Prosecutors Brief, Vol. 33, No. 4, p. 17, 2011) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Many see the introduction of neuroscience into law...

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/crimprof_blog/2012/08/shen-on-neuroscience-for-prosecutors.html

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Article: Ryan on Death and Rehabilitation

Ryan on Death and Rehabilitation
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/crimprof_blog/2012/08/ryan-on-death-and-rehabilitation.html

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LAW REVIEWS: Use of Behavioral Genetics Evidence in Criminal Cases

Professor Deborah Denno of Fordham University Law School has published an article in the Michigan State Law Review concerning her research into the use of genetic evidence possibly related to behavior characteristics in criminal cases.  Denno found that the primary use of this evidence was in death penalty cases at the penalty phase, and that it is almost always used as mitigation evidence.  The article notes some of the dangers in this kind of evidence based on past use.  Nevertheless, the author concludes that courts are accepting of this evidence, even though it does not determine the outcome of the case.

(D. Denno, "Courts' Increasing Consideration of Behavioral Genetics Evidence in Criminal Cases: Results of a Longitudinal Study," 2011 Michigan State Law Review 967; posted Aug. 22, 2012).  See Law Reviews and Studies.

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Article: LAW REVIEWS: "A Modest Proposal: The Aged of Death Row Should Be Deemed Too Old to Execute"

LAW REVIEWS: "A Modest Proposal: The Aged of Death Row Should Be Deemed Too Old to Execute"
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/law-reviews-modest-proposal-aged-death-row-should-be-deemed-too-old-execute

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Article: Split Ninth Circuit faults district judge for failing to ensure defendant was competent at sentencing

Split Ninth Circuit faults district judge for failing to ensure defendant was competent at sentencing
http://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2012/08/split-ninth-circuit-faults-district-judge-for-failing-to-ensure-defendant-was-competent-at-sentencin.html

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Article: "Meaningless Opportunities: Graham v. Florida’s 'Meaningful Opportunity for Release' for Juvenile Offenders and the Reality of De Facto LWOP Sentences"

"Meaningless Opportunities: Graham v. Florida's 'Meaningful Opportunity for Release' for Juvenile Offenders and the Reality of De Facto LWOP Sentences"
http://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2012/08/meaningless-opportunities-graham-v-floridas-meaningful-opportunity-for-release-for-juvenile-offender.html

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Atkins MR/ID Court Decisions: Hooks v Workman (OK, 2012); Maestas v Utah (2012)

Thanks again to Kevin Foley for sending me two new recent Atkins decisions. Decisions are posted without comment.

Hooks v Workman (OK,2012). Prior 2005 decision can be found here.

Maestas v Utah (2012)




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How Genetic Explanations for Violent Behavior Influence Criminal Sentencing

A new study in Science finds judges tend to give lighter sentences to violent, psychopathic criminal defendants when presented with evidence that the defendants had a gene linked to aggressive behavior.  Researchers at the University of Utah — including former CLB Fellow Teneille Brown — provided judges with a fictional case file that described a violent crime.  All of the case files identified the defendant as a psychopath, but half included additional scientific evidence linking the defendant's pyschopathy to a genetic cause.  Although judges appear inclined to give substantially longer sentences to defendants identified as psychopaths, the study found those sentences were an average of a full year shorter when judges heard biological explanations for the defendant's behavior.

If you can't get past the paywall at Science to read this fascinating study, you can learn more in news coverage by the New York Times and NPR's Morning Edition, among other outlets.

http://blogs.law.stanford.edu/lawandbiosciences/2012/08/17/how-genetic-explanations-for-violent-behavior-influence-criminal-sentencing/

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AAIDD newsletter signup@_aaidd, 8/16/12 10:30 AM

AAIDD (@_aaidd) 8/16/12 10:30 AM Sign Up To Receive #AAIDD's Monthly F.Y.I. Email Today: bit.ly/Q3pPX4

Death by IQ: US inmates condemned by flawed tests

FYI without comment.

Despite a US Supreme Court ruling, intellectually disabled convicts are being executed – and it's all down to errors in IQ

http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/22683b4b/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Carticle0Cdn22180A0Edeath0Eby0Eiq0Eus0Einmates0Econdemned0Eby0Eflawed0Etests0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

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