Mental health and developmental disorders vs death penalty

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FranzOren
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26 Mar 2021, 12:09 am

I feel so confused about where I stand. If it comes to Intellectual Disability, psychosis or any other developmental disorders or mental health issues, then they should not be put into death penalty. The problem is that you can have Intellectual Disability or psychosis and know from right and wrong, but that is only if it is mild.

For example; Lets say that I committed high crimes, such as murder, espionage or even treason and/ or I committed all of the examples of those crimes that I listed here. Let's say that I did that more than once, as an example.

What should happen to people like me, who have any history of developmental delay and mental health issues, but they knew what they did was wrong and there were enough evidence that people like me these committed high crimes?



I have history of being treated for diagnosed disorders that I have:

*Borderline Intellectual Functioning (Although I just call it a severe Learning Disorder that I have, or I just call it milder symptoms of Intellectual Disability)
*Autism
*ADHD
*Bipolar Disorder (with history of derangement, with delusions and hallucinations that only lasted for one month at the age of fifteen)



Traits that I have that are not diagnosed or not sure that I am diagnosed with, but being treated for:

*PTSD-like traits ( Not typical PTSD traits, but more like psychological traumatic experience for sometimes being made fun of for being different from my early childhood)
*Anxiety
*Depression and sadistic thoughts after for being made fun of for having lower IQ for my age
*Pedophillic traits (Not diagnosed, but I have some of traits of Pedophillic Disorder)
*Conduct Disorder Unspecified




I was asking what would happen and how people like me would be treated and I wanted to ask you how they should handle people like me if they committed high crimes, they knew what they did was wrong, but they have history of developmental delays and mental health issues.

I think it is a very tricky subject when it cones to people like me, I hope that you can discuss about people who have examples of these disorders that I listed or similar disorders, but are high-functioning, knew from right and wrong and there was enough evidence that people with like me committed high crimes and what punishment there should be.

These are just examples that I was asking of what should happen if people that have Intellectual Disability or any developmental disorders, but are high-functioning and they committed high crimes.



When you mean Intellectual Disabilities, do you mean all people with developmental disorders?



The tricky problem here is that a person can be intelligent and have history of developmental delay at the same time. For example; You have an average IQ, but you have Learning Disorder or Autism, other developmental disorder that is listed in diagnostic manuals and or both.

So in that sense death penalty should be abolished, I hope that I am correct.

But it depends on the severity of ASD.

Autism is a spectrum developmental disorder that goes from profound Learning Disorder or profound Intellectual Disability to Autism without any Learning or Intellectual Disorder. the third problem is that you can have Autism or any communication disorder without having Learning or Intellectual Disability.


It is rare for a person with Intellectual Disability to commit crimes on their own and are more likely to be victims, because they have problems with Learning and have problems with Intellectual and adaptive functioning. However there are exceptions and reports that some people with developmental disorders commit crimes, because they are high-functioning. Statistics says that most people with mental health and developmental disorders are more likely to be victims than being perpetrators compare to people in the general population. However we should be careful, because not everyone in the general population commit crimes ether.

But I wanted to ask if death penalty should only be used as a last resort, not as punishment or revenge, but for the sake of safety for others if there is proof that a person is constantly being dangerous and is trying to escape, regardless if they have mental health and developmental disorders. But other than that I have mixed feeling about the death penalty, because some people can be wrongly convicted for death penalty.



Sources of the study of who will more likely to be victims or criminals:

https://www.mentalhealth.gov/basics/men ... yths-facts



Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTurjPjkXbI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsmpmDnIdSE&t=13s


Other source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrongful_execution

https://ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/a ... -execution

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21058775/

https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4034186/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/ ... s-innocent

https://innocenceproject.org/national-a ... -innocent/




Sources of some criminals with mental health and developmental disorders:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27185105/

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10 ... 16.1175998

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17615427/

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.117 ... 4X07302056

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20024608/

https://link.springer.com/article/10.10 ... 009-0917-y

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18449633/

https://link.springer.com/article/10.10 ... 008-0580-8

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26510628/

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.117 ... 4X15612719

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4710161/

https://journals.lww.com/hrpjournal/Ful ... _in.2.aspx

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14600312/

https://ps.psychiatryonline.org/doi/ful ... 54.11.1519

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5789215/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29398933/

https://www.google.com/search?q=Sky+Wal ... e&ie=UTF-8


I was just asking and giving examples of what should and what will happen in reality.

I felt so confused, because it is considered unconstitutional to execute people with Intellectual Disabilities. But the problem is that Intellectual Disability can be mild.

I don’t want to confuse you that I did all of those things, because I don’t know how to commit these crimes, because it evolves a lot of thinking (I have problem with that), especially because my IQ is much lower for my age and also because it is a very serious crime.


Murder- the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another.

Espionage- the practice of spying or of using spies, typically by governments to obtain political and military information.

Treason -the crime of betraying one's country, especially by attempting to kill the sovereign or overthrow the government.



That is not to say that I am incapable of committing those acts, but I am not capable of committing those acts in such a that is pointed out, because my IQ is unusually too low for my age. I don’t know exactly how low my IQ is, but I found out that I have Borderline Intellectual Functioning when I first read my old developmental and mental health report from SARC, but according to my old IEP reports, my IQ is unusually too low.

What I meant to say that I am capable of doing some acts of these high crimes, but I don’t have the right motivation to commit all of the acts of high crimes, because of what I explained above. But if I still had severe or profound symptoms of developmental disorder, I would not be capable of committing high crimes whatsoever. I could get framed, but that is it if I still had severe or profound symptoms of developmental disorder.

But, If there was a situation that I accidentally found a secret document, I keep it as it is and return it to the police station and then wait for the instructions from the police and the military on what to do and what I am not supposed to do next. But I don’t really know how that works.

But I am just simulating a scenario if that happened. This situation is very rare and may never happen in the first place.


I know that my logic sounds a little oversimplified, but if mental health and development disorders may be a disqualification to join the army, then mental health and developmental disorders should maybe be a disqualification to be put on death penalty, in terms of diminished capacity, even if you knew from right and wrong.

Insanity plea, although not a jail free card and in fact you probably still go to prison, the only difference is that you get mental evaluation, but other than that, you get no sympathy just because you were legally insane.



MidnightRose
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26 Mar 2021, 12:56 am

I have changed my stance and am nowadays anti-death penalty. An innocent person can eventually be released from prison, but you can't un-kill someone. Not to mention that philosophically I don't agree with retributive justice in general. "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind," killing or causing suffering in criminals does not undo the suffering of their victims. It just creates more suffering in the world.