State-Sponsored Suicide?

By Jeralyn, Section Death Penalty
Posted on Sat Apr 07, 2007 at 03:07:39 PM EST
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Meet Marco Allen Chapman. Charged in Kentucky with murdering two children and leaving another child and their mother for dead, and facing a potential death penalty if convicted, he waived his right to a trial and pleaded guilty before the Court. He asked the Court to sentence him to death. The Judge complied.

His case is different from defendants who have waived appeals of death sentences. Chapman never had a trial.

His court appointed lawyers say this is state-assisted suicide. The Kentucky Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case Monday. All death penalty sentences are appealed automatically.

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In briefs with the high court, Boyce and Wheeler argue that the trial judge mishandled the case and that Chapman was depressed and seeking to use court proceedings to commit suicide. They want a new sentencing hearing after Chapman has been treated for depression. ''Marco Chapman is committing suicide,'' Boyce and Wheeler wrote.

Should Chapman's decision be respected?

Michael Hoffheimer, a criminal law professor at the University of Mississippi, said a ruling giving deference to a convicted man's decision to seek a death sentence could be troubling because it would take away multiple legal safeguards to ensure that only a competent, guilty person is put to death. Without those safeguards, there's a chance someone who is not guilty, but suicidal, could be executed, Hoffheimer said.

''Permitting defendants to make decisions that increase the risk of wrongful convictions is bad policy,'' Hoffheimer said.

Assuming Chapman is competent and there's overwhelming proof of his guilt (both the acts and the requisite mental state) from legally admissible evidence, I think he should be allowed to make the decision. It's his life.

But, to answer the question, yes, it's state-assisted suicide.

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State-Sponsored Suicide? | 4 comments (4 topical)

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Did a brief search but (none / 0) (#1)
by oculus on Sat Apr 07, 2007 at 03:39:35 PM EST

can't find the case. But, didn't California Supreme Court determine years ago that, although defendant wanted to plead guilty and accept the death penalty, he couldn't Elaine Alexander represented defendant, whose name, as I recall, was Biily Lee Chad. He was a serial murder and torturer of women, some of whose names he obtained while working at the U.S. Navy hospital in San Diego.

"state-sponsored suicide" (none / 0) (#2)
by diogenes on Sat Apr 07, 2007 at 07:54:34 PM EST

The defendent has a right to plead as he wishes unless competent authorities find that he is psychiatrically ill and thus unable to aid in his own defense. He can appeal as he wishes unless he is incompetent to aid in his own defense as defined by medical examination.

: why are horrific criminals (none / 0) (#3)
by Jen M on Sat Apr 07, 2007 at 10:09:31 PM EST

the only people who get the right to request assisted suicide?

Sometimes it is useful to state the obvious (none / 0) (#4)
by JSN on Sun Apr 08, 2007 at 12:47:38 PM EST

which is that it is not normal to ask for the death penalty. It is not clear from the record what questions were asked by the judge. The circumstances of the case suggest the judge might have given a death sentence in any case. The man certainly had good reason to be depressed.