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Families of victims and families of the executed gather to launch national project

By "Persian Cowboy"

Washington, DC ? Murder Victims? Families for Human Rights (MVFHR) and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) launched a national project opposing the death penalty for persons with severe mental illnesses at a press conference and remembrance ceremony in San Antonio, Texas on October 3. The initiative builds on a series of recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions that eliminate the death penalty for people with intellectual disabilities and juvenile offenders and raise serious concerns about executing people with severe mental illnesses. A national report on the issue will be released in June 2009, based in part on testimony from family members at San Antonio event. Amanda and Nick Wilcox, who traveled to the conference from California, said they believe the man responsible for killing their 19-year-old daughter Laura must be held accountable for his actions, ?but to execute him for an act he committed while delusional with a severe disease is, to us, simply wrong...continue to full post

Full post as published by Texas Death Penalty Blog on October 05, 2008 (boomark / email).