Note: Stay of Execution
ordered 3-7-2001...............link to article at bottom of page.
Please BOOKMARK this page and come back for future reports of
developments.
From: <nmha@nmha.org>
To: <nmha-legislativealerts@lists.wego.com>
Subject: Action Alert: Juvenile Offender Faces Execution
Date sent: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 14:02:01 -0500
BORDERLINE MENTALLY RETARDED AND JUVENILE
OFFENDER
ANTONIO RICHARDSON FACES EXECUTION
IN MISSOURI IN TWO DAYS
Support Needed before Wednesday to Pressure
Governor to Commute Sentence to
Life in Prison
Antonio Richardson – who was just
16 years old, borderline retarded and
neurologically impaired at the time of his offense – is scheduled
for
execution this Wednesday, March 7 in Missouri. Antonio was convicted
of
participating in the rape and deaths of two young women and has
now all but
exhausted any remaining avenues of judicial relief. His fate will
most
likely rest with Missouri Gov. Bob Holden. In the sentencing phase
of his
trial, critical evidence regarding his mental functioning and
brain damage
was never presented to the jury nor fully considered by the sentencing
judge. If executed, Antonio would be one of the youngest offenders
executed
in the United States since the reinstitution of the death penalty
in 1973.
NMHA does not deny the serious and violent nature of the offense
of which
Antonio was convicted, but young people – especially those
with mental
impairments – cannot be held to the same standard of culpability
and
accountability for their actions as adults are. NMHA urges its
affiliate
network and other advocates to pressure Gov. Holden to commute
the sentence
of death to life in prison for Antonio Richardson.
* Antonio suffers from borderline mental
retardation and organic brain
damage, both of which significantly impair his thinking, judgment
and
impulse control while increasing his susceptibility to the influence
of
others.
From his earliest days in school, Antonio
was identified as a child with
depression, significant learning problems and poor academic performance.
Testing has consistently shown him to be borderline mentally retarded
with
significant impairment in the areas of attention and concentration,
memory,
learning, planning, judgment, problem solving, speech and language
skills,
spatial and conceptual skills and motor skills. In addition,
neuropsychological testing revealed significant organic brain
damage in his
frontal lobes and brain stem areas. This damage substantially
affects his
ability to regulate arousal, to process information, to think
and integrate
information, to reason abstractly, to make decisions and to control
impulses. Consequently, as a result of Antonio’s neurological
impairments
his cognitive functioning is comparable to that of a child. In
fact,
comprehensive testing before his trial indicated that his educational
level
was that of a seven year old.
* Antonio was the product of a broken,
impoverished family and was routinely
abandoned by his substance-abusing mother.
Antonio was the second of three boys
born to Gwendolyn Williams who was an
18 year old, single parent when she gave birth to Antonio. Antonio
never
knew his father. His mother was uneducated, unemployed, and extremely
poor
and had a serious addiction to drugs and alcohol. She routinely
abandoned
her young children triggering the involvement of the State's Division
of
Family Services. Antonio and his brothers were often "bounced"
from house to
house of extended family members.
* The sentencing jury was never presented
evidence regarding his borderline
retardation and brain damage nor was this evidence fully considered
by the
sentencing judge.
At sentencing, Antonio was represented
by an attorney who had never
participated in – or even observed – a penalty phase
in a capital case. The
attorney failed to present the expert neuropsychologist who would
have
testified to Antonio's gross impairment and its effect upon his
thinking,
behavior and culpability. Nevertheless, the jury became deadlocked
over
whether a death sentence was appropriate which, under Missouri
law, resulted
in the trial judge making the final determination. And while the
judge did
hear the testimony of the neuropsychologist, he did so after he
had already
announced that death would be the sentence imposed on Antonio.
* Executing juvenile offenders runs counter
to basic American standards of
justice and fairness.
The execution of a juvenile offender
is contrary to fundamental principles
of American justice, which punishes according to the degree of
culpability
and reserves the death penalty for the "worst of the worst"
offenders. NMHA
believes that the age, maturity, mental status, and any childhood
history of
abuse / trauma of a youthful offender should always be considered
as
potential mitigating factors in deciding an individual’s
punishment. Young
people under age 18 should not be held to the same standard of
culpability
and accountability for their actions as adults. Moreover, family
dysfunction
and mental impairment -- such as that experienced by Antonio Richardson
--
only exacerbate the vulnerabilities of youth.
A number of organizations such as the
American Bar Association, the Child
Welfare League of America, the Children's Defense Fund, the Youth
Law
Center, the Juvenile Law Center, the Coalition for Juvenile Justice,
the
American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry, and the American Academy
for
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry urge that the execution for a
crime
committed while a juvenile is simply unacceptable in a civilized
society.
* A majority of states have recognized
that subjecting adolescents and the
mentally retarded to the death penalty is contrary to basic and
evolving
standards of decency.
Of the 38 states that permit the death
penalty, only 23 permit the execution
of persons who were under the age of 18 at the time of their crimes.
Among
these 23 states, only 16 have juvenile offenders on their death
rows while
only 7 have carried out actual executions of juveniles since the
death
penalty was reinstated in 1973. In 1999, the State of Montana
abolished the
juvenile death penalty while the Florida Supreme Court raised
the age of
eligibility from 16 to 17. A growing number of states are considering
legislation to abolish the execution of juvenile offenders, including:
Arizona, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, South Carolina, Mississippi,
Arkansas, and Texas. Moreover, a recent national poll conducted
by the
Houston Chronicle indicated that solid support for the capital
punishment of
juvenile offenders has fallen to only 26 percent.
Similarly, of the 38 states that have
the death penalty, only 25 permit the
execution of people with mental retardation. A growing number
of those
states (including North Carolina, Texas, Florida and even Missouri
itself)
are currently considering legislation to abolish the execution
of mentally
retarded offenders.
* Executing juvenile offenders is contrary to international law.
In continuing to execute juvenile offenders,
the United States acts in
defiance of substantial international consensus and law. Indeed,
such
executions have all but ended around the world, except in the
United States.
In the last decade, the United States has executed more juvenile
offenders
than all of the world's nations combined. The only other countries
that
still execute juveniles are Iran, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and the
Democratic
Republic of Congo. (China, Yemen, and Pakistan have recently abolished
the
use of capital punishment for juveniles.) The death penalty for
juvenile
offenders is expressly prohibited by the International Covenant
on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR), The U.N. Convention on the Rights of
the Child
(CRC) and the American Convention of Human Rights. While the United
States
has not yet ratified the CRC and specifically reserved its right
to execute
juveniles when ratifying the ICCPR, the execution of Antonio Richardson
would further alienate the United States from the international
community.
Moreover, it would further damage our legitimacy as a world leader
in the
protection and promotion of human rights, particularly the rights
of
children.
Under Missouri law, the Governor has
the exclusive power to commute a
sentence of death to life in prison. NMHA urges its affiliate
network and
other advocates to call, fax and email Gov. Bob Holden asking
him to commute
the sentence of death to life in prison for Antonio Richardson.
Please contact:
Gov. Bob Holden
State Capitol Building
Room 216
P.O. Box 720
Jefferson City, MO 65102
Phone: 573-751-3222
Fax: 573-751-1495
E-mail: constit@mail.state.mo.us
For more information contact Hazel Moran,
program associate, Juvenile
Justice, National Mental Health Association at (703) 837-4798
or
hmoran@nmha.org.
--------------------------------------------------
SAMPLE MESSAGE TO GOV. HOLDEN
The Honorable Bob Holden
Governor
State Capitol Building
Room 216
P.O. Box 720
Jefferson City, MO 65102
Dear Gov. Holden:
On behalf of the __________________,
I want to express our strong opposition
to the death sentence of Antonio Richardson who is scheduled for
execution
on March 7, 2001. When he was16-years old—the age he committed
his
offense—Antonio was diagnosed as borderline mentally retarded
and
neurologically impaired. If executed, he would be one of the youngest
offenders ever to be executed in the United States since the reinstitution
of the death penalty in 1973. I am writing to ask that you commute
Antonio’s
sentence of death to life in prison for these reasons.
Impulsiveness, poor judgment, and a lack
of self-control are frequently
characteristics of childhood and are the reasons we limit many
of the rights
of minors. The age and maturity of a youthful offender should
always be
considered mitigating factors in deciding an individual’s
punishment.
Additionally, the mental condition of an individual can be a mitigating
factor in the commission of an offense and should always be taken
into
account during all phases of a death penalty case.
In the case of Antonio, evidence of his
mental retardation and brain damage
was not presented to the jury during his trial; these are mitigating
factors
that could have had significantly impacted the way the jury determined
his
sentence. Until more accurate and systematic ways of determining
and
considering a defendant’s mental status are developed, states—like
Missouri—should suspend using the death penalty as punishment.
We do not deny the serious and violent
nature of the offense of which
Antonio was convicted, but young people—especially those
with mental
impairments—cannot be held to the same standard of culpability
and
accountability for their actions as adults.
The international community, the federal
government, as well as many states
prohibit the execution of people for offenses committed before
the age of
18.
Executing Antonio serves no principled
purpose and only demeans our system
of justice and the stature of your state. Please commute Antonio
Richardson’s sentence to life in prison. Help put an end
to the practice of
executing people who committed their crimes while still children.
Respectfully,
XXXXXXXX
For more information about the National Mental Health Association
and its many programs and activities, visit us at www.nmha.org.
A related article from the Chicago Tribune (free but requires registration)
Cruel & Unusual (New York Times) Mar 8, 2001
Note: The hearing for Antonio Richardson
before the US Supreme Court
is expected to follow that for John
Paul Penry, a similiar case to be heard 22Mar2001.
John Paul Penry's case on the docket 27Mar2001 (AP) (The New York Times)
Those opposing Richardson's execution
include the American Bar Association,
the Children's Defense Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union,
the Association for Retarded Citizens and Amnesty International,
as well as the mother of the two victims.
(Source: Australians Against The Death Penalty)