https://thetexan.news/severe-mental-illness-death-penalty-exemption-passes-initial-texas-house-vote/
Bipartisan bill barring death penalty for people diagnosed with "severe mental illness" at the time of the offense.
Bipartisan bill barring death penalty for people diagnosed with "severe mental illness" at the time of the offense.
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It defines a person with "severe mental illness" as anyone who cannot adequately "appreciate the nature, consequences, or wrongfulness of the person 's conduct … or exercise rational judgment in relation to the person's conduct."
Either upon request of the defendant and his counsel or of the judge, a court-appointed "expert" will be assigned to examine the defendant's mental capacity; that process can occur at the beginning or end of the trial. If judged to suffer from "severe mental illness" and convicted of the offense that'd merit capital punishment, the judge would instead sentence the defendant to life in prison without parole.
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Rep. Jeff Leach (R-Plano), a joint author of the bill, spoke in favor of it on the floor, saying, "As a supporter of the death penalty, I am against executing people who at the time of the offense had a severe mental illness."
"We cannot and should not especially as pro-life conservatives execute people who lacked the requisite mens rea at the time of the offense."
The bill passed on second reading by a vote of 84 to 61 20 Republicans joined House Democrats to pass it.