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| Cecil Clayton |
The state of Missouri is preparing to execute Cecil Clayton, a brain damaged man who has been on death row since the mid 1990s. The elderly inmate, who is now in his 70s, has a low IQ and suffers from mental illness - facts that have inspired media coverage as well as protest from those who are against the death penalty. Mother Jones reports that the convicted murderer is "psychotic and unable to function" yet the state of Missouri is in a rush to put him to death.
Cecil Clayton is in bad mental shape and it probably has a lot to do with the fact that he is missing part of his brain. A large portion of his frontal lobe was removed after a terrible accident over 40 years ago - long before he committed the murder he committed in 1996. Doctors had to remove up to 20 percent of his brain, leaving him brain damaged and with an IQ nearly 30 points below average. The Daily Mail has also pointed out that Clayton is Missouri's oldest death row inmate at 74-years-old.
Close to 30 years after nearly 20 % of the frontal lobe was removed from his brain, he committed the shooting death of Missouri police officer Christopher Castetter. It was a violent and impulsive crime that rocked the community of Barry County, Missouri. A family lost their loved one and a police force lost a partner. Clayton quickly became a convicted cop killer, and he was swiftly given the death penalty - regardless of his severely low IQ and the circumstances surrounding why his IQ was so low. Along with his attorney, his daughter Jena has spoken out against the upcoming execution - which is slated to take place on St. Patrick's Day.
"Talking with him is like talking to a child. I do not believe we are the kind of country that executes the disabled."
The frontal lobes of the human brain are responsible for numerous functions associated with spontaneity, impulse control, judgment and sexual behavior. In other words, it's the "moral" center of the brain that is vulnerable to injury or, really, any kind of tinkering that may take place (such as surgical removal). The Centre for Neuro Skills states that damage to the frontal lobes can manifest itself in either a depressive state or a psychopathic state. Cecil Clayton has been described as a "brain-damaged psychopath" in more than one media report covering his case.
Do you think Missouri is right for choosing to execute Cecil Clayton? His attorney says that he is so mentally disabled that he questions whether or not the man even understands that he is going to die in just days. While he appears cognizant to the fact during conversations, he reportedly forgets shortly thereafter. This fact makes it hard to predict how he will react to his own execution when the day comes.
Governor should stop execution of mentally disabled inmate
Missouri officials plan on March 17 to execute Cecil Clayton, a 74-year-old with severe damage to his frontal lobe, the brain's executive center. This case raises grave civil rights concerns about the use of the death penalty for people with disabilities. Missourians are urged to contact Gov. Jay Nixon to suggest he stay the execution and commute Clayton's death sentence to life without parole - or at least convene a board of inquiry about his competency.
My background is in clinical neuropsychology, the study of brain-behavior relationships. Psychologists, physicians and other health professionals promote the well-being of all citizens and advance the state of knowledge regarding individuals, such as Clayton, with health and mental health impairments.
Medical records indicate that in 1972, while Clayton worked at a sawmill in southwest Missouri, a piece of log pierced his skull. He arrived at Barry County hospital semiconscious with bone embedded in his brain, and 20 % of his frontal lobe was removed. 9 days later he was released from the hospital without long-term therapy. After the injury, he experienced marked personality and behavioral changes, could not maintain long-term employment and was deemed medically eligible for Social Security disability. He spent years in and out of mental health facilities.
In 1996, Clayton fatally shot Barry County Sheriff's Deputy Christopher Castetter. We extend condolences for this horrible crime to Deputy Castetter's grieving loved ones. For the community's safety, Clayton requires long-term or permanent placement in a secure setting. However, his brain injury raises questions about his ability to check impulsivity, to deliberate and to appreciate fully the consequences of his actions - all necessary for legal imposition of Missouri's death sentence.
Decades of research demonstrates the frontal lobe is pivotal in impulse control, judgment and deliberation. Health professionals have cataloged Clayton's brain damage, including organic brain syndrome, hallucinations and disorganized thinking. Physicians and psychologists examined Clayton at least 9 times since 2003 and deemed him incompetent to be executed.
Neuropsychological testing showed significant cognitive deterioration, rendering him intellectually disabled, according to a January 2015 civil rights complaint. Clayton's 2005 evaluation yielded a full-scale IQ of 71. A 1983 evaluation had determined he was reading at a 4th-grade level. Multiple doctors over the past 10 years concluded Clayton suffers from dementia related to traumatic brain injury and lacks ability to make rational decisions and control impulses.
Clayton is unable to assist in his own defense. Physician William Logan said in his 2008 evaluation: "Mr. Clayton believes his conviction was the result of a conspiracy by the legal system against him and that someone else killed Deputy Castetter." Logan's report continued, as Clayton's execution looms more likely, "he shows no concern and has an inappropriately elated mood. He cannot describe any issues on which his appeal is based." Clayton has repeatedly said God will prevent his execution, and he is unable to describe how he himself might assist that process.
Clayton has a history of other injuries, beginning when he was dropped on his head as an infant, leading to blindness in one eye. Psychologist Daniel Foster reported in 2008 that "his impairment, consistently described and reported for 38 years, continues to be sufficiently profound and sustained so as to render him incompetent to be executed."
Missouri law says that "no person condemned to death shall be executed if as a result of mental disease or defect he lacks capacity to understand the nature and purpose of the punishment about to be imposed upon him." The process for determining capacity relies solely within the correctional system, despite Clayton's long and well-documented history of neurologic injury. Whether one supports or opposes the death penalty, it is in society's interest to reserve such punishment for "the worst of the worst" who have full knowledge and insight into their actions.
Cases like Clayton's demonstrate that too often, severely mentally disabled individuals face the harshest state sanctions. The American Psychological Association has called for a moratorium on executions because of wrongful convictions, inconsistencies in prosecutors' decisions to seek the death penalty, and the unfair role of race "until the jurisdiction implements policies and procedures that can be shown to ameliorate the (identified) deficiencies."
Health professionals serve Missourians using the best available specialized expertise. Chapter 552.070 of the Missouri statutes allows the governor to convene a board of professionals to gather information on whether execution, reprieve, pardon or commutation of sentence is most appropriate. Urge Gov. Jay Nixon to exercise his clemency power to stay the execution of Cecil Clayton and commute his sentence or at least to convene a board of inquiry to make an independent evaluation. Contact Gov. Nixon's office at 573-751-3222.
To execute this 74-year-old with significant brain injury would undermine Missourians' right to a fair system of justice.
Source: Columbia DailyTribune, Op-Ed by Laura Schopp, March 15, 2015. Laura Schopp is a professor with the University of Missouri Department of Health Psychology.
