Mentally ill and emotionally disturbed offenders comprise a significant component of those whose criminal conduct has swept them into the criminal justice system, including a subset who are tried and convicted of capital murder. The present study employs the population of capital cases advanced to penalty phase in the state of North Carolina (1990–2009) to examine whether presentation to the jury of the statutory mitigators of extreme mental and emotional disturbance and capacity impaired, and specific mental illness diagnoses, often referred to as mental disorders, at the sentencing phase mitigate against a sentence of death. Mental disorders included mood disorders, psychotic disorders, anxiety disorders, brain disorders, multiple mental illness diagnoses, learning disabilities, and personality disorders. Results from these 835 cases indicate that with the exception of one, the diagnosis of a learning disability, the capital jury's acceptance of various mental health conditions does not effectively mitigate against a capital sentence. In addition, jury rejection of a diagnosis of mental illness or the two mental health statutory mitigators, capacity impaired and extreme emotional disturbance, as a mitigating factor has a counter‐mitigating effect in that it significantly increases the odds of a death penalty recommendation by about 85–200%.

中文翻译：

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检查作为缓解因素的精神障碍对死刑判决结果的影响。

患有精神疾病和受到情绪困扰的罪犯占那些犯罪行为已将其席卷到刑事司法系统的人的重要组成部分，其中包括一部分被审判并被判处死刑的人。本研究采用了北卡罗来纳州（1990-2009年）进入处罚阶段的死刑案件总数，以研究是否向陪审团介绍了严重精神和情感障碍和能力受损的法定缓解者，以及特定的精神疾病诊断，通常称为精神障碍，在量刑阶段减轻死刑。精神障碍包括情绪障碍，精神病性障碍，焦虑症，脑部疾病，多种精神疾病诊断，学习障碍和人格障碍。不能有效地缓解死刑判决。此外，陪审团拒绝诊断精神疾病或两个法定的精神疾病缓解者（能力受损和极端情绪障碍）作为缓解因素，具有反缓解作用，因为它大大增加了推荐死刑的几率85–200％。