National criminal justice reference service overview

NCJRS

The death penalty is back in the media again. Scott Peterson, convicted of murdering his wife and his nearly full-term unborn child, received the death sentence. This sentence had been recommended by the jury who convicted him. Peterson was immediately moved to San Quentin, where he will await execution. What is remarkable about this is that according to Court TV, there are already over 660 other prisoners on "death row" in California.

Also according to Court TV, Peterson has been diagnosed with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Recently the Supreme Court rules that those who are mentally retarded and have committed crimes cannot be sentenced to death. The question arises, will they next include mental illness as a reason to block the use of the death penalty? If so, would all mental illnesses be included? Should someone like Scott Peterson be sentenced to life without chance of parole instead of death because he has a personality disorder?

The Capital Punishment Report for 2003 shows that across the country, 3,374 men and women with a sentence of death were in prisons across the country. Only 65 prisoners were executed in 2003. Those 65 had been waiting for execution for an average of twelve years. 144 people convicted of crimes were sentenced to death in 2003. Part of the delay is because 37 out of the 38 states that use the death penalty also have laws requiring automatic review.

It would be hard to argue that automatic review is a bad thing, as the media has reported multiple times of prisoners on death row who were released after DNA testing proved that they could not have been the person who committed the crime. However, it is a contributing factor to the large number of inmates on death row for many years.

For 2002, the Capital Punishment Report reports that of nearly 7,000 inmates with a sentence of death, only 12% were executed between 1977 and 2002. 4% died before execution, and fully 33% had their status changed to something other than a sentence of death. 159 new death sentences were issued by courts in 2002. The youngest death row inmate was 18, and the oldest was 87, a remarkable age span. There were 71 executions in 2002, 5 times as many as in 2001.

Both reports generated extensive statistics on the race and ethnic backgrounds of these prisoners, the crimes they committed, and the sex of the criminals (women only make up about 1% of all felons on death row). However, nothing was tabulated regarding any kind of mental infirmities, whether the inmates had any kind of mental illness or retardation.

It is hard to look at someone like Scott Peterson and suggest that because he has Narcissistic Personality Disorder he should be exempt from the death penalty while others are not. Clearly he knew right from wrong; he worked hard to cover his crime. Also, until he committed this crime, he seemed to function well in society. He had friends, owned a home, and held a job. It would be much easier to say that someone who is schizophrenic, while knowing right from wrong, might have had diminished capacity to make the right choice.