Dead Men Talking

First there were “dead men walking” and now there are “dead men talking” – to their therapists. In California, land of all things exotic and trendy, courts have now required psychiatric care for mentally disturbed death row inmates. At San Quentin prison, a new 40-bed psychiatric hospital is soon to open for those destined to die by edict of the state. In some cases, 24-hour nursing care will be provided. Long-term mental health care for those destined to die? Part of the problem is that those sentenced to die are not being speedily executed. In fact, the last time California executed someone condemned to die was 2006 due to almost endless appeals. The bleeding-hearts behind this worry about mentally ill prisoner having issues with drug overdoses (drugs in prison?) and suicide. Proponents of such health care cite as an example one prisoner named Justin Helzer who hung himself with a bedsheet. They argue that with better psychiatric care, Helzer might still be alive and his problems of delusional thoughts cured. Never mind that Helzer was on death row for killing five people and dumping their dismembered bodies in a Sacramento River.

Of course most death row prisoners are mentally ill. That’s why some of them killed, and others became mentally ill because of the guilt of their crimes. Should the law-abiding taxpayers be billed to take care of criminals to be certain they are thinking straight when they enter the execution chamber to pay for their crimes? Providing basic human needs is one thing, but seeking to emotionally fix a man to face judgment by death for his deeds is an exercise in misguided liberalism. To give those on death row a more reasonable right to a better life seems a bit overdone, when you consider that these men who were condemned to die gave their victims no right to life at all.