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 March 20, 2001 Dear Governor, Human Rights Watch writes to urge you to support legislation that would prohibit the state of Arizona from executing persons with mental retardation. Current state laws are inadequate to ensure that people whose cognitive development is impaired by retardation and who have the mental capacity and moral development of children are spared the death penalty. However terrible the crimes committed by a person with mental retardation, his or her execution is unacceptable in a civilized world. Public opinion polls in Texas - as elsewhere in the nation - reveal that even supporters of the death penalty believe executing the mentally retarded is wrong. We are enclosing a copy of our new report, Beyond Reason: The Death Penalty and Offenders with Mental Retardation, which documents the many ways justice is denied when mentally retarded offenders are tried and sentenced for capital crimes. We hope this report will help convince you there can be no justification for the execution of such persons. If the state would not countenance the execution of a seven-year-old child, how can it permit the execution of an adult with the mind of a seven year old? Retribution becomes mindless vengeance when imposed on people with a limited ability to understand what they have done. Accountability and public safety can be secured through punishment short of death. Thirteen of the thirty-eight states with the death penalty and the federal government have recognized the senseless cruelty of executing mentally retarded offenders and have passed legislation that bans such executions. Texas should do the same. Sincerely, Jamie Fellner BACK: The Death Penalty and Offenders with Mental Redardation | |
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