ABSTRACT
The behavioral and social sciences have recently re-examined decisions regarding prisoner's competency to be executed, especially in the context of their implications for mental health law and policy in general 1 and mentally disordered death-row prisoners in particular. 2 The essential debate focuses upon those conditions wherein the state may, without abridging an inmate's constitutionally protected liberty interests, terminate the life of a citizen awaiting execution. 3 This is an extremely contentious matter and, as a result, the debate remains mostly unresolved by the Court. For example, questions persist as to whether the execution of a convicted mentally ill offender is, under particular circumstances, in the best interest of the state and, thus, society, 4 or whether it is the quintessential expression of judicially sponsored inhumanity. 5
