Sarkar J2,4,5, Kowal S1, Misra M3
1Monash University, 2Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist, Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health, Forensicare, 3Project 39A, National Law University , 4Specialist Personality Disorder Psychiatrist, Personality Disorder Initiative, Department of Health & Human Services, 5Senior Forensic Clinical Advisor, Spectrum Personality Disorder Service
Biography:
Sara is a criminal lawyer and the Vice-President of the Capital Punishment Justice Project, an NGO with the single aim to abolish the death penalty worldwide. In 2018, Sara was appointed by Monash University’s Law Faculty to establish the Eleos Anti-Death Penalty Clinic. In November 2019, Sara joined the Executive of the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN). ADPAN represents anti-death penalty advocates and organisations across 22 countries within the Asian region. In November 2021, Sara was elected to be Convenor of ADPAN for a two-year term. She on three working groups of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty.
Purpose:
The role of mental health expert witnesses in capital offence cases is pivotal to the outcome. Mental health professionals committed to human rights can utilise their roles within criminal justice systems to advocate for non-capital sentencing, without compromising their professional ethical duties.
Nature and scope of the topic:
Despite international law viewing the imposition of the death penalty on persons with mental disabilities as “a violation of the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment”, many jurisdictions continue to sentence persons with mental illness and intellectual disabilities to death. It is not uncommon to find prisoners with serious mental disorders on death row in capital jurisdictions, having been convicted and sentenced without proper mental health evaluation and expert evidence being provided.
Issue under consideration:
The symposium will provide an overview of the relevant international jurisprudence and a case study in Singapore involving expert evidence on intellectual disability (Sara Kowal); provide the narrative of the experience of a forensic mental health expert in capital cases including an ethical critique of engagement in such cases (Jaydip Sarkar); and examine the potential roles of mental health experts through the findings of a landmark study on mental health and the death penalty in India (Maitreyi Misra).
(NB. Presenters can provide a further abstract outlining each particular presentations’ focus upon request)
The outcome or conclusion reached:
Through the conduct of their work as expert witnesses, mental health experts can reduce the scope and use of the death penalty in retentionist jurisdictions without compromising on their ethical and professional duties.