DEATH PENALTY

The Convicted as Victims?
the layperson to successfully identify offenders with mental disorders
that may be relevant to their culpability as well as their eligibility for
capital punishment.
At the outset, it is important to understand the distinction between
mental illness and intellectual disability. Intellectual disability is also
known as mental retardation or learning disability. In more antiquated
penal codes, it may be known as “idiocy.” The World Health Organization
defines intellectual disability as follows:
A condition of arrested or incomplete development of the
mind…especially characterized by impairment of skills
manifested during the developmental period, skills which
contribute to the overall level of intelligence, i.e. cognitive,
language, motor, and social abilities. 18
By contrast, mental illness is a medical condition that disrupts a person’s
thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning.
Serious mental illnesses include major depression, schizophrenia,
bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress
disorder and borderline personality disorder.
The Relevance of Mental Health in Death
Penalty Cases
Mental health has a direct bearing on four separate—but related—
questions that should be posed in every capital proceeding. The first
relates to an offender’s sanity. The central tenet of this doctrine is that an
individual may not be held criminally liable if she or he could not
appreciate the nature or wrongfulness of their actions at the time of
the offense. For example, the Criminal Code of Ghana excludes from
criminal responsibility individuals whose “idiocy, imbecility, or any
mental derangement or disease affecting the mind” prevents them
from understanding the nature or consequences of their actions. 19
Although states have adopted varying definitions of the state of
mind necessary to exempt an individual from criminal liability, an
18 World Health Organization. 1996. I CD-10 Guide for Mental Retardation. p. 1.
19 Ghana Criminal Code of 1960, art. 27, amended by Act No. 646 of 2003.
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