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Executions take a severe psychological toll on prison staff, with many experiencing PTSD, moral injury, and emotional distress. This article explores the hidden casualties of the death penalty, revealing how executioners and correctional officers face mental health challenges that often go unacknowledged. With insights from studies, personal accounts, and cases across the U.S., it highlights the urgent need for systemic support and reform.

• Document type Arguments against the death penalty
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Death Row Conditions / Mental Illness

The Death Penalty Policy Project has published a comprehensive study analyzing over three decades of FBI homicide data. The findings reveal that U.S. states without the death penalty or with moratoria on executions are safer for both the public and police. By contrast, states actively carrying out executions rank among the least safe in the U.S. The study challenges long-held deterrence arguments and underscores the death penalty’s ineffectiveness as a public safety policy.

• Document type Arguments against the death penalty
• Countries list United States

International law and laws of various countries prohibit the imposition of the death penalty on persons
with mental illness or developmental and intellectual disabilities due to the special barriers faced by
them in defending themselves; their limited moral culpability; and their diminished ability to
understand the nature and reason for their execution. However, due to lack of accommodations in
criminal proceedings and legal safeguards, persons with mental illness, developmental and intellectual
disabilities are at a greater risk of being sentenced to death and having their fair trial rights denied.

Authors:
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.

• Document type Arguments against the death penalty
• Themes list Fair Trial / Intellectual Disability
• Available languages 世界精神醫學會針對精神健康與死刑之立場聲明

Since 2010, persons convicted of rape offences were executed in at least 9 countries, including India and Pakistan. Moreover, public protests against the rape epidemic, which led governments to introduce capital rape laws, illustrates the need to shine a spotlight in South Asia.

The report examines the use of the death penalty for rape in four South Asian countries: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and explores ways that anti-death penalty activists can challenge this concerning trend.

• Document type Arguments against the death penalty / NGO report
• Countries list Bangladesh / India / Pakistan / Sri Lanka

From the point of arrest decades after the execution or release of a parent accused of a capital crime, the children’s mental health and wellbeing, living situation, and relationships with others can all be affected, usually in a devastating manner. The inherent trauma of knowing that a loved one is going to be executed can be exacerbated by public indifference or hostility, and by authorities who either fail to recognise or deliberately refuse to consider the situation of these children. This publication addresses the challenges to support the children.

• Document type Arguments against the death penalty
• Themes list Juveniles, International law, Murder Victims' Families,

A fact sheet on the cost of the death penalty in the United States. Life emprisonment without parole is suggested.

• Document type Arguments against the death penalty
• Themes list Transparency, Death Penalty, Financial cost,

Scientific studies have consistently failed to demonstrate that executions deter people from committing crime anymore than long prison sentences.

• Document type Arguments against the death penalty
• Themes list Deterrence ,

In recent years, a growing number of religious organizations have participated in the nation’s death penalty debate. The purpose of this Web page is to provide access to information regarding the efforts of these faith groups and to highlight recent developments related to religion and the death penalty.

• Document type Arguments against the death penalty
• Themes list Religion ,

This sheet details the factors which contribute to the arbitrariness of the death penalty in the USA.

• Document type Arguments against the death penalty
• Themes list Arbitrariness,

An argument against deterrence is made by looking at a survey which found that during the last 20 years, the homicide rate in states with the death penalty has been 48 to 101 percent higher than in states without the death penalty.

• Document type Arguments against the death penalty
• Themes list Deterrence ,