THE POPE WHO SENTENCED HIMSELF1

Rate of false conviction of criminal defendants who are sentenced to death.

The rate of erroneous conviction of innocent criminal defendants is often described as not merely unknown but unknowable. There is no systematic method to determine the accuracy of a criminal conviction; if there were, these errors would not occur in the first place. As a result, very few false convictions are ever discovered, and those that are discovered are not representative of the group as...

Sentenced without Cause

wants us to be disturbed about. His thesis is that Peter Whitehead, with an I.Q. of 86 plus, was wrongly detained in Rampton and elsewhere from 1944 to 1956. The diagnosis of "weak impulsive psychopath of inferior intelligence, capable of violence and a potential danger to himself and others" is amply borne out by the author's own account of Whitehead's acts of violence. The authorities said he...

Competence to be sentenced.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Competence to be sentenced, or lack thereof, is not frequently claimed in legal proceedings. This paper reviews the concept and possible forensic psychiatric applications. RECENT FINDINGS This topic has achieved prominence because of recent rulings imposed by the US Supreme Court that prohibit execution of mentally impaired and under-age individuals. The most recent contribu...

Two Turkish doctors who went to aid of protesters are sentenced to prison.

Two doctors who gave first aid to people injured during the Gezi Park demonstrations in Istanbul in 2013 have been given a 10 month prison sentence by a Turkish court. The convictions of Yasemin Erenç and Sercan Yüksel for “denigrating a mosque” while delivering healthcare services have been condemned by human rights organisations and the World Medical Association. The doctors are currently not...

Papal Responses to the Holocaust: Contrast between Pope Pius XII and Pope John Paul II