On Thursday, November 9th, 2006, the D3 (Dinner and Discussion at Drexel) event entitled "To Kill or Not to Kill" unfolded at Drexel University in front of a packed audience of students and faculty. The speakers included The Honorable Renee Cardwell Hughes, judge of the court of common pleas, Dr. Kirk Heilbrun, forensic psychologist and Head of the Psychology Department at Drexel, Dr. Julia Hall, the coordinator for the event, Tanya McClary, of the American Friends Service Committee, and Harold Wilson, an exonerate of death row. The speakers were surrounded by photographic portraits of prisoners on death row taken by award winning photographer Lou Jones from his book Final Exposure. These photographs set the atmosphere for a discussion of capital punishment, and what it is to be on death row.

Dr. Julia Hall introduced the event, telling the audience, "Think about the fact that these killings are being done in your name." "This is a complex subject and we know you don’t all agree about it." We as a country are accountable for capital punishment, and Dr. Hall’s message to us is that we think about what capital punishment really is. The goal of this event, she said, was not to challenge anyone’s set opinions of the death penalty, but rather to ask questions and give us the real facts. "It’s not important what you think. What’s important is how you arrive at what you think."

Tanya McClary, the first speaker, provided some relevant facts about capital punishment. In the United States, between 1972-1976, the death penalty was banned, so that between these dates there were no new death penalty cases. The year 1976 saw the Supreme Court reinstate the death penalty, and by 2003 there were approximately 3500 inmates sitting on death row. Only last year did the Supreme Court end the death penalty for juveniles under 18 years age. The death penalty sentence is illegal in thirteen states. As of October 2006, 222 people are on death row in Pennsylvania alone, making the state the owner of the 4th largest death row in the United States. In 2005, New York’s death penalty law was not renewed. Since 1973, there have been 127 people exonerated from death row, six from Pennsylvania.

Ms. McClary also addressed race. Does race have some relationship with the death sentence? she asks. Common thought, Ms. McClary said, was that the race of the defendant created bias, but recently the shift has been made to the ethnicity of the murder victims. Of 1,053 defendants sent to death for murder, 80% of their victims were Caucasian. The question she asked was if the victim is white, is the defendant more likely to receive the death penalty than if he or she killed someone of a minority? Another statistic says that 65% of defendants on death row are African-American.

Dr. Kirk Heilbrun, Head of Drexel’s Department of Psychology, impels his voice through the microphone. "Before we discuss the death penalty entirely, we need to acknowledge that people have done horrible things." He passed around a handout entitled "Recommendation and Report on the Death Penalty and Persons with Mental Disabilities," a topic he and his colleagues researched. The APA, or American Psychological Association, wanted Dr. Heilbrun to be a part of a taskforce dedicated to finding a resolution on capital punishment and mental disorders or disabilities present in defendants, so that if a defendant can be proven mentally challenged, insane, or mentally disabled at the time of the crime, the death penalty cannot be given. It was important for Dr. Heilbrun and his taskforce to find some resolution as to what defines insanity or mental disability in a defendant, as such things are often difficult to prove.

In his research, Dr. Heilbrun wanted to bring a scientific perspective to mental disorders and crime, and one might say he and his taskforce were successful; the resolution was accepted by numerous organizations involved with capital punishment. The court now has to ask, did the defendant know his or her crime was wrong? Can the defendant be considered insane at the time of the crime? What mental problems might the defendant be suffering or suffered in the past? After a death sentence is passed, does the defendant become extremely distressed or disturbed? The mental health law states that there are three elements that determine whether an accused person has a mental illness: the nature of the clinical symptoms, the functioning of legal capacities (in other words, whether the accused understood the law), and the causal connection. "If you can establish that a defendant has a mental illness, then the death penalty is off the table." "This legislature may go somewhere. We will watch and wait with interest."