TCADP is delighted to announce the release of its new Mental Illness and the Death Penalty (MIDP) Organizing Packet, which will provide you and/or your group with all of the information you’ll need to educate yourselves and take action! These exciting resource materials can be used to engage faith communities, student groups, civic groups, and other allies in raising awareness of the fact that current constitutional safeguards and Texas law do not protect those with persistent and severe mental illnesses from being sentenced to death or executed.
The packet includes fact sheets, a resource guide, definitions of key terms and legal statutes, ideas for action, a DVD on Scott Panetti (see box), and portraits of individuals such as Kelsey Patterson, Larry Robison, James Colburn, Emile Duhamel, and Monty Delk, whose cases illustrate the failings of the state’s mental healthcare and criminal justice systems. The central action component is the MIDP postcard, which calls for a prohibition of the death penalty for severely mentally ill offenders and for increased funding for mental healthcare in the state of Texas. Click to read the postcard. To request postcards so that your friends, family members, church can sign them, order the organizing packet! Help us reach our goal of collecting 1000 postcards by the end of 2007.
To request your copy of the Mental Illness and the Death Penalty Organizing Packet, please contact Kristin Houlé at khoule@tcadp.org or 512-441-1808. Please specify the number of postcards you would like to receive as part of your packet.
Last but not least, check out our new blog http://preventionnotpunishment.blogspot.com/ dedicated to educating the public about issues related to mental illness and the death penalty. Add your comments today!