ACT NOW: Please contact your state representative at one of the numbers below and
urge him/her to SUPPORT AND CO-SPONSOR HB 446, AN ACT relating to mental
illness.
Legislative Message Line 1-800-372-7181
TTY Message Line 1-800-896-0305
En Espaiiol 1-866-840-6574
Leave this message for your State Representative: I ask you to co-sponsor HB 446, AN
ACT relating to mental illness. This bill will protect severely mentally ill persons
found guilty of a capital murder from execution. When guilty the jury can send him
or her to prison for the rest of their lives. Thank you.
If you don’t know who your Kentucky State Representative is then click on Project Vote
Smart and enter your 9-digit zip code and you will receive that information.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Representative Mary Lou Marzian, along with 9 additional co-sponsors (Jim Wayne,
Tom Burch, Jesse Crenshaw, C. B. Embry Jr., David Floyd, Reggie Meeks, Darryl
Owens, Jody Richards, Robin Webb, and Ron Weston) have filed HB446, AN ACT
relating to mental illness.
This bill, supported by the National Alliance on Mental Illness — Kentucky and the
Kentucky Mental Health Coalition, as well as the Catholic Conference of Kentucky, the
Kentucky Council of Churches and the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty,
seeks to prevent the execution of severely mentally ill persons.
The proposed bill is narrow and protection of society is insured:
It does not provide that everyone who has a mental illness should be exempt from
capital punishment, but rather considers the degree and type of mental illness and
how it contributed to the capital crime.
CO Itonly applies to those defendants whose trials commence after enactment of the
legislation. It does not apply to those already on Kentucky’s death row.
O It specifically excludes from the exemption those diagnosed with conditions that
are primarily manifested by criminal behavior and those whose abuse of drug or
alcohol, standing alone, renders them impaired at the time of the offense.
1 Unlike the insanity defense, the proposed bill only takes the penalty of death off
the table, and so protection of society through imprisonment remains available.
(Click here for a more complete description of the bill.)
The following language from the actual text of the bill describes the type of defendant
who, if the court found him/her to be severely mentally ill, could not be sentenced to
death, but could be sentenced to life without parole when guilty of capital murder.
A defendant who at the time of the offense, had a severe mental disorder or
disability that significantly impaired his or her capacity to appreciate the nature,
consequences, or wrongfulness of his or her conduct, exercise rational judgment in
relation to conduct, or conform his or her conduct to the requirements of the law, is
referred to in KRS 532.135 and KRS 532.140 as a severely mentally ill defendant. A
mental disorder manifested primarily by repeated criminal conduct or attributable
solely to the acute effects of voluntary use of alcohol or other drugs shall not,
standing alone, constitute a mental disorder or disability for purposes of this
subsection.
Please call toll free — 1-800-372-7181 — and leave this message for your State
Representative: I ask you to co-sponsor HB 446, AN ACT relating to mental illness.
This bill will protect severely mentally ill persons found guilty of a capital murder
from execution. When guilty the jury can send him or her to prison for the rest of
their lives. Thank you.
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