This article was produced through the NPR NextGen/Texas Observer Print Scholars program, a new collaboration designed to offer mentorship and hands-on training to student journalists and recent graduates interested in a career in investigative journalism.
Jennifer Toon is used to sharing intimate glimpses of difficult experiences with Texas lawmakers. A fellow at the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities, Toon frequently visits the Legislature to support bills that address intersections between mental health and criminal justice. But rising to speak about House Bill 140, which deals with capital punishment and people with mental illness, was different. “Boy, I think testifying on HB 140 was the most nervous I was out of all the bills I testified on,” she says, recounting her experience this spring. “It’s difficult—because of that stigma and that cultural understanding of mental health—to go up there and say: I am a person with a mental health problem.”
HB 140 was the third bill of its kind to make it through the House committee in four years. It would exempt an individual with documented schizophrenia, a bipolar disorder, or a schizoaffective disorder from the death penalty if they were in the midst of a crisis when they committed their offense. In short: it would prevent Texas from executing severely mentally ill defendants convicted of a capital crime. While the measure passed the state House this session, it did not receive a Senate committee hearing.
