Ohio bill would bar death penalty if convicted person has SMI

A bill now in Ohio's Legislature would prevent people convicted of aggravated murder from being sentenced to the death penalty if they are found to have had a serious mental illness at the time of the offense, The News & Observer reported May 19. Republican Rep. Brett Hudson Hillyer, a primary sponsor of House Bill 136, testified last month before the House Criminal Justice Committee that the death penalty should be reserved for only the worst offenders, The Columbus Dispatch reported. The bill has bipartisan support and support from mental health advocacy groups, including the Ohio Psychological Association, the Ohio Psychiatric Physicians Association and the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Ohio, according to the newspaper. Under the bill, a capital defendant found to have had a serious mental illness when the crime was committed would not be sentenced to death. The sentence would instead be life in prison without parole, life in prison with parole eligibility after 25 or 30 years or a special type of life sentence under the Sexually Violent Predator Sentencing Law.