August 6, 1999
Editor,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
In response to Molly Ivins' August 5 article on the planned execution of Larry Robison, a paranoid schizophrenic who was repeatedly denied treatment before committing a terrible crime:
Most people think this could never happen to them, but no one has a guarantee that they will never have a loved one who is mentally ill. Even if they know of no family history of mental illness, they or one of their children could marry someone who carries the genetic blueprint for schizophrenia or some other genetically linked mental illness. They could then have a child or grandchild who is dear and precious to them, who grows to their teens or beyond, and then begins to exhibit the behavior that identifies the illness. This happened to Larry Robison's mother; it has happened to other people. And, yes, it CAN happen to you and your family. And if it does, our present system provides more punishment than help.
Although we now have medication and treatment for some mental illnesses, the system stands between the patient and the treatment, and our society responds to mental illness much as it did to epilepsy in the past. We have come up out of the dark ages where epilepsy is concerned, since we have learned about the electric circuitry in the brain. During the Middle Ages, epileptics were burned at the stake; forty years ago, they were, by law, not even allowed to marry; today they have medications available that control the electrical mis-firing, and society reels at the thought of the treatment meted out to them in the past.
Perhaps soon we will make this much progress in the understanding of mental illness. But today, the State of Texas proceeds in ignorance and denial. We no longer bum people at the stake for having epilepsy, but we do execute people for having mental illness. And one day, society will surely look back and call us barbarians.
Killing Larry Robison will not make anyone safer today, although responding to his desperate pleas for help when his mind was spinning out of control could have saved 5 lives 16 years ago. We should let Governor Bush know that we must have a more civilized response to mental illness, and that we will not tolerate the execution of the mentally ill.
Dorothy Deen
Burleson, Texas
