|Articles|January 1, 1998

Psychiatric Times

  • Psychiatric Times Vol 15 No 1
  • Volume 15
  • Issue 1

Is It Ethical for Psychiatrists to Participate in Competency-To-Be-Executed Evaluations?

In its 1986 decision in Ford v. Wainwright, the U.S. Supreme Court found that death row prisoners had a constitutional right not to be executed if they were incompetent (477 U.S. 399 [1986]). Competence for execution-an odd concept, but one whose roots go back to biblical times-usually requires that a prisoner understand the nature of the punishment about to be imposed and why it is being imposed.

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