Chapter Four: How Many Mentally Ill Offenders Did He Execute?

John Hinckley’s successful “not guilty by reason of insanity” (NGRI) plea after shooting Ronald Reagan sent tremors through American culture.  Suddenly, the nation feared that no one would ever go to jail again; all criminals would simply be declared insane and set free, turning the nation’s streets into war zones.  In fact, NGRI is a very rare plea which rarely succeeds.  In George W. Bush’s Texas, insanity is more likely to lead to the death chamber than to a mental institution. 

John Satterwhite was determined by independent psychiatrists to be both schizophrenic and mentally retarded or semi-retarded.  Unfortunately, these determinations were suppressed by the prosecution during his trial.  As a result, psychiatrists for the prosecution were able to argue that Mr. Satterwhite was a competent judge of right and wrong.  Despite the suppression of evidence, Mr. Satterwhite was executed by the state of Texas.

Larry Robison began acting bizarrely as a child and was diagnosed as schizophrenic by the age of 21.  His parents tried desperately to get him professional help, but the state of Texas insisted there was nothing it could do until he hurt someone.  He did.  The state’s response wasn’t to provide the murderer with psychiatric help, but to execute him.  Mr. Robison agreed to drop appeals if the state executed him on a full moon, and Texas complied. 

Ignoring the tragic consequences of these cases, Gov. Bush dramatically cut funding both for mental institutions and for psychiatric care during his tenure.