The issue with the death penalty and Developmental Disorders

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People with mental, behavioral or neurodevelopmental disorders are more likely to be victims than being perpetrators. There may be correlation between some mental, behavioral or neurodevelopmental disorders, but it's rare.

The issue with the death penalty/capital punishment, mixed feelings about the death penalty/capital punishment and the fact that four percent of people on death row might be innocent.

Another issue of the death penalty/capital punishment and Intellectual Developmental Disorder or Disorders of intellectual development.

The supreme court ruled that it is considered unconstitutional and is considered cruel and unusual punishment to put people with Intellectual Developmental Disorder or Disorders of intellectual development to death.

My question is to what extent, and they don't specify the severity of Intellectual Developmental Disorder or Disorders of intellectual development. And the issue is that people with mild Intellectual Developmental Disorder or Disorders of intellectual development might understand right from wrong and might be able to defend themselves in court and in comparison to people with moderate, severe or profound Intellectual Developmental Disorders or Disorders of intellectual development.

What I am trying to explain is that symptoms of Intellectual Developmental Disorders or Disorders of intellectual development can be mild, moderate, severe or profound. Just outright making it unconstitutional to put people with Intellectual Developmental Disorder or Disorders of intellectual development to death is too broad.

It would make sense to do case by case evaluation, and for example, if the murder with mild Intellectual Developmental Disorder or Disorders intellectual development knows right from wrong and can defend themselves in court, then they should get capital punishment. If Intellectual Developmental Disorder or Disorders of intellectual development is more severe, then it should be unconstitutional to put them to death.

Another problem is that even some people without intellectual impairment also have other Neurodevelopmental Disorder.



Let me ask a moral question, as a hypothetical scenario.

As a hypothetical scenario, let's say there was a person with Mosaic Down Syndrome that became a murderer and he knows right from wrong and is also intelligent. Should such a person be given capital punishment or death penalty?

You see where I am getting at?

You see how hypocritical the law for the death penalty or capital punishment sounds?

It's common for people with Down Syndrome to have Intellectual Developmental Disorder, but there are some people with Down Syndrome that have average intelligence, however there are still mild developmental delays when it comes to intelligent people with Down Syndrome.

That is just one example, there are different genetic disorders that cause developmental delays and can also be the causes of intellectual impairment.

I am on the moral dilemma when it comes to putting people with developmental delays in general to death row, even if some of them are not intellectually impaired.

Also the question is about people with severe mental, behavioral or neurodevelopmental disorders, especially disorders with psychotic features, the question if they should be prevented from being put to death row I'd the criminal behavior is explained by serious mental disorders or disorders with psychotic features.


Sources:

https://innocenceproject.org/innocence- ... 20innocent.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21058775/

I’m strongly opposed to the death penalty even for people who are guilty and don’t have developmental disorders. It seems wrong to murder people for…murdering people. Apart from the inmate who is sentenced to death, I’m also concerned about the effect that could have on people who participate in the state-sanctioned murder. It can’t be good.

Many countries have inhumane laws. It doesn’t make them any more okay. I think it’s confusing (perhaps a euphemism) calling killing someone “capital punishment” although I suppose it depends on your perspective. In my opinion, “murder” is intentionally killing someone, so “capital punishment” would fit that description. Other people see things differently though.

I would support capital punishment for the most serious offenders if there were a way to ensure that there were no errors in ending the lives of innocent people who have found themselves wrongly accused of a serious crime for whatever reason.

Keeping a person in prison for decades costs the tax payer a lot of money, even for just a single individual and doesn't account for the devastation that the crimes of the perpetrator has caused the families of the victims of their crimes, to suffer.

Unfortunately, prison time seems to be the only system that works to allow for the wrongly accused to be able to have a chance of being reinstated in terms of their social position of innocence, should new evidence exonerate that person, or if/when they are released from prison.