Forensic death penalty1

docx

School

Grand Canyon University *

*We aren’t endorsed by this school

Course

510

Subject

Psychology

Date

Feb 20, 2024

Type

docx

Pages

Uploaded by mokk10

Psychologists and Death Penalty Cases Grand Canyon University PSY-510: Contemporary and Ethical Issues in Psychology Katie Wick February 14, 2024 1

Psychologists and Death Penalty Cases The death penalty has been a topic of much controversy for many decades. Many people are against the death penalty but there are also a great number of supporters for the death penalty. Forensic psychologists have become increasingly more involved in death penalty cases since the 1976 case of Gregg v. Georgia which ruled that capital sentencing must be tailored to the individual offense and the person who committed it (Fisher, 2022) . Some reasons that the death penalty is opposed are that it violates human rights, innocent people have been executed, and a number of minorities and lower socioeconomic defendants are handed the death penalty. Forensic psychologists are utilized in court cases to determine if the defendant is fit to be tried and executed under the death penalty. To be found guilty the criminal act must have been voluntarily committed (actus rea) and the defendant must also have had the mental capacity to understand the criminality of the act, or form the intent to commit a criminal act (mens rea) (Ferguson & Ogloff, 2011) . Human Rights and the Death Penalty Human rights and the death penalty have had many supporters on each side of the issue. Many people believe that the criminals that commit the most heinous crimes are no longer entitled to human rights and they deserve to die. On the flip side of that belief, there are supporters of life that believe every living person has human rights no matter what they did and they should still be respected and deserve to live. To protect the right to life, Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights dealing with the Right to Life has set parameters on the imposition of the death penalty to limit its application (Fathalla, 2022) . The criteria and parameters are summarized as such, the death penalty only be imposed for the most serious crimes in accordance with the law at the time the crime was committed, the penalty can 2

only be carried out pursuant to a final judgment by a competent court, anyone sentenced to death has the right right to request a pardon or communication of the sentence, the death penalty shall not be carried out on anyone under the age of 18, and it shall not be carried out on a pregnant woman (Fathalla, 2022) . For many who support the death penalty, like families of murder victims, they believe that the execution of the perpetrator will bring them closure and they will be able to move on. This is not always the case. In 2014, a man named Jeff Ferguson was executed for the rape and murder of Kelli Hall. Her family believed that his execution would bring them closure but after they learned about how much good Ferguson had done in jail they regretted it. They learned through a documentary that he regretted his acts and the pain he caused the family and his family (Mbah, Pruitt, & Wasum, 2019) . In prison, he was a leader in the hospice unit, GED, and restorative justice programs, as well as one in which prisoners listened to victims share the devastating impact the crimes had on their lives (Mbah, Pruitt, & Wasum, 2019) . The Hall family later felt that if they had known all these facts and spoken with Ferguson there would have been significant healing for their family. Ethical Implications Forensic psychologists involvement in death penalty cases can have many ethical implications. The psychologists evaluation of the defendant influences the judge's decision in court. Psychologists are tasked with establishing if a defendant is mentally unfit to be tried, sometimes their judgment and evaluation can be contorted due to the defendant malingering. To help with the ethical implications many jurisdictions follow the M’Naughten rules to determine if a defendant is sane or insane. The M’Naughten rules consist of three elements, first, the defendant must be determined to be suffering from a defect of reason and from disease of the 3

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version

Access to all documents
Unlimited textbook solutions
24/7 expert homework help

mind, second, evidence must show that the defendant did not “know” the nature and the quality of the act he was doing, and finally, it requires an inquiry to determine whether the defendant knew what he was doing was wrong (Ferguson & Ogloff, 2011) . When a defendant is malingering, the ability of the properly trained and experienced psychologist to differentiate the real symptoms from those that are feigned is critical in criminal responsibility evaluations (Ferguson & Ogloff, 2011) . If a psychologist does not see through the malingering, the ethical dilemma here could be that a criminal who is criminally responsible was able to get away with the crime and did not receive the proper punishment for the crime, thus circumventing the justice system to their benefit. If the psychologist evaluates the defendant and feels that they are malingering when in reality they are not and reports to the court that the defendant was malingering and is suitable to be tried, the defendant who is unfit to be tried and is not criminally responsible can be sentenced to death and his human rights will have been violated. Conclusion In conclusion, psychologists play a pivotal role in death penalty cases. As they perform their evaluations of defendants facing the death penalty they need to be unbiased, they need to follow ethical standards, use validated tools and rules, and consider the human rights of the individual. Tools that will help in the evaluation are the M’Naughten rules, the MMPI/MMPI-2, R-CRAS, and SADS. To protect the human rights of the individual, the psychologist must leave their biases at the door, these feelings and biases could unjustly sentence someone to death. A properly trained psychologist may have trouble determining if a defendant is malingering, with the proper tools and training the psychologists should be able to determine if this is true so as to not recommend a sentence that does not fit the crime or the mental status of the defendant at the time of the crime. A psychologist in a death penalty case has the difficult task of ensuring that 4

human rights are not ignored and that any ethical implications are addressed within the scope of the case. 5

References Fathalla, A. (2022). The United Nations Human Rights Committee: The evolution of the punishment of the death penalty. Intercultural Human Rights Law Review, 17 , 47-52. doi:https://eds-p-ebscohost-com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer? vid=6&sid=9546f836-5458-4f46-aed3-e2fbfc5055bc%40redis Ferguson, M., & Ogloff, J. R. (2011). Criminal responsibility evaluations: Role of psychologists in assessment. Psychiatry, Psychology, and Law, 18 (1), 79-94. doi:https://web-p- ebscohost-com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=e067bb99- fb44-4d8a-9c13-b18a59acf4af%40redis Fisher, C. (2022). Decoding the ethics code: A practical guide for psychologists (5th ed.). Sage Publications. Mbah, R. E., Pruitt, T., & Wasum, D. F. (2019). Cruel choice: The ethics and morality of the death penalty. Research on Humanities and Social Sciences, 9 (24), 14-22. 6

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version

Access to all documents
Unlimited textbook solutions
24/7 expert homework help

Related Documents

SPD 560 Topic 6 DQ 3.docx

Homework 3 2023.docx

Evidence-Based Professional Development – EDU 485.docx

T1 DQ2.docx

T1 DQ1.docx

CJ 315 5-1 Journal .docx

Ethical implications1.docx

PSY 510 Week 1 Right to Die.docx

Ethical Consultation1.docx

Lecture 3 _ Common Research Methods.docx

Discussion 4 Post .docx

PSYC 6383 DQ 4.2 # 3.docx

Recommended textbooks for you

Ciccarelli: Psychology_5 (5th Edition)

Psychology

ISBN:9780134477961

Author:Saundra K. Ciccarelli, J. Noland White

Publisher:PEARSON

Cognitive Psychology

Psychology

ISBN:9781337408271

Author:Goldstein, E. Bruce.

Publisher:Cengage Learning,

Introduction to Psychology: Gateways to Mind and ...

Psychology

ISBN:9781337565691

Author:Dennis Coon, John O. Mitterer, Tanya S. Martini

Publisher:Cengage Learning

Psychology in Your Life (Second Edition)

Psychology

ISBN:9780393265156

Author:Sarah Grison, Michael Gazzaniga

Publisher:W. W. Norton & Company

Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research a...

Psychology

ISBN:9781285763880

Author:E. Bruce Goldstein

Publisher:Cengage Learning

Theories of Personality (MindTap Course List)

Psychology

ISBN:9781305652958

Author:Duane P. Schultz, Sydney Ellen Schultz

Publisher:Cengage Learning

SEE MORE TEXTBOOKS

Recommended textbooks for you

Ciccarelli: Psychology_5 (5th Edition)
Psychology
ISBN:9780134477961
Author:Saundra K. Ciccarelli, J. Noland White
Publisher:PEARSON
Cognitive Psychology
Psychology
ISBN:9781337408271
Author:Goldstein, E. Bruce.
Publisher:Cengage Learning,
Introduction to Psychology: Gateways to Mind and ...
Psychology
ISBN:9781337565691
Author:Dennis Coon, John O. Mitterer, Tanya S. Martini
Publisher:Cengage Learning
Psychology in Your Life (Second Edition)
Psychology
ISBN:9780393265156
Author:Sarah Grison, Michael Gazzaniga
Publisher:W. W. Norton & Company
Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research a...
Psychology
ISBN:9781285763880
Author:E. Bruce Goldstein
Publisher:Cengage Learning
Theories of Personality (MindTap Course List)
Psychology
ISBN:9781305652958
Author:Duane P. Schultz, Sydney Ellen Schultz
Publisher:Cengage Learning