A matter of life or death: Special considerations and heightened practice standards in capital sentencing evaluations

Mental health evaluations at capital sentencing represent a complex and spe cialized arena of practice. The moral culpability focus of capital sentenci ng is distinct from guilt-phase considerations of criminal responsibility, and has a specialized literature. Capital violence risk assessment is uniqu ely oriented to a prison context, relying on past adjustment to incarcerati on, as well as group statistical data specific to capital offenders and oth er inmate groups. Personality testing is a more complex consideration in ca pital sentencing evaluations. The implications of interviewing the defendan t, as well as the parameters and documentation of an interview, make full d isclosure and informed consent of particular importance. Defense- and prose cution-retained experts are subject to specific ethical vulnerabilities. Th ese are examined in this paper through the lens of current professional sta ndards. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.