No Death Penalty On Persons With Mental Illness Or Developmental Or Intellectual Disabilities: World Psychiatric Association

The World Psychiatric Association in the General Assembly of its 23rd World Congress in Vienna on 30 September 2023 approved a Position Statement recommending that the death penalty should not be imposed on any person with mental illness or intellectual and developmental disabilities; and no person with mental illness or intellectual and developmental disabilities should be executed.

Established in 1950, the World Psychiatric Association is a global organisation representing 145 psychiatric societies across 121 countries. It is for the first time that a professional organisation in the field of psychiatry has adopted a statement calling for a prohibition on the imposition of the death penalty on persons with mental illness or intellectual and developmental disabilities. It is important to note that it has been adopted without any conditions or qualifiers, irrespective of mental condition/illness at the time of the offence or the severity of the mental disorder. This is the first Position Statement which echoes the position taken in international law by the United Nations General Assembly and Economic and Social Council.

While the constitutionality of the death penalty per se remains controversial, the Statement acknowledges the disproportionate impact of the death penalty on persons with mental or developmental and intellectual disabilities. Vulnerabilities and lack of support mechanisms to accommodate their needs puts them at a greater risk of fair trial and dignity violations, consequently, heightening the risk of being sentenced to death and being wrongfully executed. This is in line with the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (to which India is a signatory) which advocates for abstention from the use of the death penalty against persons with mental illness and intellectual disabilities. This is on account of the discriminatory and disproportionate denial of their fair trial guarantees, particularly in the absence of necessary accommodations. A longitudinal study conducted on the mental health of prisoners on death row demonstrated that in India, 62% of prisoners on death row have been found to have at least 1 mental illness, as opposed to 14.3% in the community population¹ and 11% have been diagnosed with intellectual disability, as opposed to 0.6% in the community population, as per Deathworthy. Further, the harsh conditions of death row enhance the suffering of persons with mental illness or intellectual and developmental disabilities, perpetuating the mental health crisis among those sentenced to death, thus, amounting to an additional punishment.

Psychiatrists play a key role in the administration of the death penalty. The Statement calls for psychiatrists to inform the court’s understanding of mental illness or intellectual and developmental disability; and provide assistance to identify persons with mental illness or intellectual and developmental disabilities through mental health evaluations of persons either sentenced to death or at risk of being sentenced to death at every stage of the legal proceedings so that they may be provided treatment and care.

The protection under Indian law to persons with mental illness or intellectual and developmental disabilities against the death penalty is conditional and limited. The heightened risks in this context go unacknowledged by courts in India. The Supreme Court in Accused X v. State of Maharashtra (2019) has held that onset of ‘severe mental illness’ post-conviction would be considered a mitigating factor if the person does not understand the nature of punishment, and result in a commutation. In Shatrughan Chauhan v. Union of India (2014), it held that the onset of mental illness post-conviction amounts to a supervening factor, warranting the commutation of death to life imprisonment. The Model Prison Manual (2003) only recommends that persons showing signs of “insanity” prior to their execution should be examined, with no clear direction to bar the execution of such persons. The mental condition at the time of the offence or its severity are not determinative of the rights being violated or the structural barriers created for persons with disabilities. It also fails to take into account situations where mental illness or intellectual and developmental disability has its onset prior to conviction. Under Indian law not all persons with mental illness or intellectual and developmental disabilities are sheltered from the death penalty per se. As acknowledged by the Statement, this understanding of mental illness or intellectual and developmental disabilities under law of death penalty is not in line with contemporary medical, scientific and human rights standards. The WPA through its Position Statement seeks to safeguard the human rights of persons with mental illness or intellectual and developmental disabilities and reinforces the principle of recognising them as rights-holders.

The WPA statement was authored by :

Maitreyi Misra, Director (Mental Health and Criminal Justice), Project 39A, National Law University Delhi.

Namrata Sinha, Research Associate (Mental Health and Criminal Justice), Project 39A, National Law University Delhi.

Neeraj Gill, Professor, Health Research Institute, University of Canberra and Griffith University, School of Medicine, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia.

Soumitra Pathare, Consultant Psychiatrist, Director, Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy, ILS Law College, Pune.

Afzal Javed, President, World Psychiatric Association.