Volunteering for Execution: Competency, Voluntariness and the Propriety of Third Party Intervention

Examined is the phenomenon of volunteering for execution. The author categorizes these prisoners as suffering from psychological illnesses that are characterized by suicidal impulses, or those so stressed by the incarceration on death row & the finality of their sentence that they prefer death. Also examined are competence, conditions eliciting waiver of further legal proceedings, the constitutionality of the death sentence & the right of third parties. (“Next friends”) (NBB)