TASMIE

In the Media

2022 Coverage from the new Nashville Banner resurrects the question: should Tennessee be executing people with severe mental illness?

Read about Tennessee’s SMI Bill Passing the Full House Judiciary on March 11, 2020.

Tennessee’s severe mental illness exclusion bill (HB 1455/SB 1124) passed out of the House Judiciary Criminal Justice Subcommittee on March 13, 2019! Read about it here.

Read why 5 former Tennessee prosecutors say people with severe mental illness should never be put to death.

The American Bar Association partners with TASMIE on documentary film about severe mental illness and the death penalty.

A special report by a Nashville grand jury: “Society Must Stop Criminalizing Mental Illness.”

“Potential Cost-Savings of a Severe Mental Illness Exclusion from the Death Penalty: An Analysis of Tennessee Data”: The American Bar Association shows that Tennessee could save millions by implementing this common sense law.

It is time to stop executing people with severe mental illness and to finally apply long-standing historical principles, argues Prof. Bessler in the National Law Journal.

Idaho op-ed: “The death penalty was intended to be levied against the most blameworthy among us, not those in the throes of mania, hallucinations, and delusions.”

10 states have now filed bills to exclude those with SMI from the death penalty. That is 1/3 of all remaining death penalty states! Missouri keeps the momentum going. Read more here.

Kentuckians support severe mental illness exclusion bill which passed through the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 1st.
South Dakota’s severe mental illness exclusion bill advances out of committee to full House of Representatives. Read more about this success here.

Tom Dillard, former federal prosecutor, says that those with severe mental illness should not be eligible for the death penalty. Read his powerful op-ed here.

Great article on excluding mentally ill vets from death penalty in the Commercial Appeal.

See our article in the Knoxville News Sentinel.

See our article in the Tennessean.

The Jackson Sun covered a TASMIE event this October!

Mental Health America revised their estimated percentage of individuals with mental illness on death row. Read the discussion here.

A new study released shows that 56% of death penalty cases from 2010-2015 involved defendants with intellectual disabilities, mental illness, or brain damage. Read it here.

The 2nd part of the Fair Punishment study that examines death penalty statistics was released this October. Read it here.

Defendant with mental illness found guilty of second-degree murder in capital murder trial.

Don’t execute mentally ill, lawmakers told.

Executing individuals with mental illness undermines a fair and moral justice system.

Severely Mentally Ill Death Row Inmate Resentenced to Life 27 Years after crime.

Former Ohio governor Bob Taft calls for SMI exemption.

Indiana, putting mentally ill to death is indefensible.

Letter: No death penalty for mentally ill.

Richard Cizik, president of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good, opined the exclusion from the death penalty is an act of compassion for the mentally ill.