Death Row Debate: Executing The Mentally Ill

Jul 6, 2011
Paula Sainthouse

Gurney Used For Lethal Injections - Publik15, Flickr (2009)

Capital punishment is a controversial area, and one area of particular concern is whether the prisoner is mentally fit for execution.

In 2002 a new ruling by the Supreme Court found the execution of mentally disabled people was ‘unconstitutional’ meaning that those of low IQ (usually beneath 70) are spared the death penalty. However campaigners regard the mentally ill as being continually subjected to inappropriate and unjust use of this punishment. The following cases have become infamous;

Ricky Ray Rector

Ricky Ray Rector was executed in 1992 for the killing of a veteran police officer and a passer-by. His first crime occurred when he and his friends were refused entry to a Arkansas dancehall for failing to cough up the fee- Rector’s response to the door being barred against them was to shoot wildly at the front doors, wounding three people, one fatally. He went on the run for several days, before heeding his mother’s request to surrender and consenting to turn himself in to a man he had know all his life, Officer Robert Martin. When Martin arrived and turned away to speak to his mother, Rector fatally shot him. Immediately after this second murder he left the house and shot himself by placing the gun at his temple. He was rushed to hospital and survived the resulting surgery.

Previously a disturbed individual, his failed suicide attempt left him with the understanding of a small child and an IQ of between 63 and 70. The gunshot destroyed the frontal lobes of his brain, resulting in permanent damage. Despite arguments to the contrary by his defense lawyers, he was still declared competent to stand trial. He was found guilty of both murders and sentenced to death for the killing of Officer Martin.

During his time in prison guards observed bizarre behaviour from Rector, including dancing and laughing wildly in his cell and howling and barking whilst sitting on his bunk. Inmates said he was filled with fear and paranoia and one claimed he was terrified to leave his cell. As his final hour approached, Rector famously left the slice of pecan pie from his final meal saying he wanted to “Save it for later". And shortly before that, seeing Governor Clinton on the television news, he told one of his lawyers, "I’m gonna vote for him for President". He seemed to have no concept of what was happening to him.

Rector’s execution had a final outrage in store. The execution team took 50 minutes to find a suitable vein in which to insert the lethal injection needle. Observers described Rector moaning in pain as the number of failed needle-pricks mounted.

Varnell Weeks

Weeks was executed in 1995 using the Electric Chair. He had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic at least seven years before he murdered a Tuskegee Vet Student, Mark Batts. Batts was abducted and tied up with a pillowcase placed over his head when Weeks stole his car, and then shot in the head at close range and buried near Week’s home. When he was later apprehended for a traffic violation in the same car, Weeks shot the police officer questioning him in the chest, although this second victim survived the assault.

Weeks demonstrated erratic and bizarre behaviour during his trial, and once sentenced he asked the judge to condemn him to death. At a later hearing to determine his competency for execution, Weeks appeared with a domino on a string tied to his head. He gave increasingly rambling and disjointed responses to questioning, on a variety of subjects including serpents, Egyptians, the bible and reproduction. The judge said he was ‘insane’ but still ruled the execution could take place. During his incarceration, Weeks was frequently seen standing naked in his cell, covered in faeces and talking to people who were not there. He believed that he was god, in a variety of forms, and while he understood he would be executed, he also believed that he would then transform into a giant tortoise and reign over the universe afterwards.

Manny Babbittt

Manny Babbitt was executed for his crime in 1999, killed by lethal injection. He suffered a head injury in a car accident at age 12, and his brother, Bill, believes this permanently affected his mental abilities. He struggled at school and at the point of graduation, aged 17, he was still in 6th grade, alongside 12 year olds. He decided to sign up to the military at age 18, but failed the qualifying intelligence test so badly that a marine recruiter had to assist him through a subsequent attempt. Just six months later, he went to Vietnam. Babbitt was in action at the intense battle of Khe Sanh, often engaged in hand-to-hand combat and witnessing the death of many of his comrades. If a soldier was killed, the others covered his body with anything that could protect it from shrapnel and rats, like bedrolls and blankets. They took some personal belongings, like cigarette lighters, as keepsakes, and placed a tag on the ankle of the corpse for identification. During the siege, Babbitt received a head injury from rocket shrapnel- some sources say he was mistaken for dead, and awoke in a helicopter in a pile of dead marines.

Following two tours of duty Babbitt resumed a civilian life in the United States, but he was dogged by serious mental problems. He drifted in and out of institutions and was eventually diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic in 1975. He was addicted to alcohol and drugs and often homeless.

On the night of his crime Babbitt was said to have been drunk and startled by a passing vehicle. He ran for cover, tearing through the screen door of the first house he came to, the home of 78 year old Leah Shendel. When confronted Manny beat the woman with his bare hands and she suffered a heart attack and died. Manny removed some small belongings from her body, ignoring more valuable property in the house, and covered her with a mattress. He tagged her ankle with a leather strap.

His brother Bill became suspicious after hearing of the treatment of Mrs Schendel’s body, and was convinced of Manny’s involvement when he found a lighter inscribed ‘L.S’ in Manny’s pocket. Bill turned his brother in and asked for a promise that he would not be killed, and would instead go to a mental institution for help with his condition. His pleas were ignored by the District Attorney who announced she would seek the death penalty. Manny Babbitt was convicted, sentenced and placed on death row. His distraught brother watched him die on his 50th Birthday, the 4th of May 1999.

The disregard and lack of significance attached to mental illness and the death penalty echoes the same dismissive reactions that occur every day in wider society. With no physical evidence of the impairment, sufferers can be dismissed as faking their symptoms or attention seeking, and as people can appear and behave normally for much of the time, the condition may not be considered all that serious. Anyone living with a chronic mental illness would debate this strenuously.

Amnesty International lists many mentally impaired or ill prisoners who were put to death, suffering from a variety of conditions including psychosis, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and brain damage. Some with suicidal tendencies refused to appeal their conviction, and there are even theories that they committed their crimes in such a way to ensure they received the death penalty- that they used the state as a way of ending their lives. Amnesty International argues for the abolition of the death penalty altogether, but in their report on the execution of the mentally ill, state;

“As a minimum first step, however, perhaps the USA can be persuaded to rid itself of one of the most shameful aspects of this indecent punishment – the execution of people with serious mental illness.”