Mental Illness, Sentencing and Execution: The Disturbing Death of an Englishman in China

Execution is one of the indispensable means of education. Deng Xiaoping (1904–1997) Come little rabbit Come to me, Come little rabbit Let it be, Come little rabbit Come and pray, Only one people, Only one world, Only one God. Akmal Shaikh (1956–2009) The tragic saga of the execution of a British citizen, Akmal Shaikh, in Urumqi in northwest China in December 2009 highlights the risks of mental illnesses such as bipolar disorders and delusional disorders being discounted or inadequately taken into account in terms of their impact upon criminal responsibility and criminal culpability. The strong evidence is that Shaikh was seriously delusional and incapable of exercising reasoned judgements in his own best interests when he was found with heroin in his possession upon entering China. Yet he was not permitted to be examined by mental health professionals and was executed, after appeals, including to the Supreme People's Court of China, failed. The Shaikh case is a warning to all legal systems that a range of mental illnesses can generate symptoms causing those with them to have little insight but which, when properly evaluated, may be exculpatory or at least significantly mitigatory. Key words: mental illnessbipolar disorderdelusionscriminal responsibilitysentencinghuman rightsexecutionChina Notes 1. Publication of the photograph of Mr Shaikh by Paul Newberry is by permission of Reprieve. 2. See eg A Scobell, ‘The Death Penalty in Post-Mao China’ (1990) 123 The China Quarterly 503. 3. China allegedly executes more persons than the rest of the world put together: Amnesty International, ‘Death Sentences and Executions 2009’ < http://www.amnesty. org.au/images/uploads/adp/amnesty_interna tional-death_sentences_and_executions_in_ 2009.pdf> accessed 29 May 2010. 4. See ‘China Executes British National Akmal Shaikh for Drug Smuggling’ (29 December 2009) < http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/china-executes-british-national-akmal-shaikh-for-drug-smuggling/ story-e6frg6so-1225814446001> accessed 31 March 2010. 5. See I Freckelton, ‘Reform of Insanity Laws Needed in China: Lessons from the Qiu Xinghua Case’ (2007) 14 Psychiatry, Psychology and Law 1. 6. See H Pidd, ‘Akmal Shaikh's Harebrained Business Schemes and Dreams of Pop Stardom’ (28 December 2009) The Observer < http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/dec/28/akmal-shaikh-execution-china-mental-illness> accessed 30 March 2010. 7. R Lefort, ‘Briton Executed by China Thought He was a July 7 Bomber. Says Daughter’ (2 January 2010) Telegraph < http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20091224_1. htm> accessed 29 May 2010. 8. Statement of Jacek Gniadek, 28 December 2009 < http://www.reprieve.org.uk/akmalshaikh> accessed 29 May 2010. 9. M Townsend, ‘The Case of Akmal Shaikh’, EastSouthWestNorth < http://www.zona europa.com/20091224_1.htm> accessed 20 May 2010. 10. Pidd (n 6). 11. < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFv 0eS5p9hs> accessed 30 March 2010. 12. Statement of Gareth Saunders, 28 December 2009 < http://www.reprieve.org.uk/ akmalshaikh> accessed 20 May 2010. 13. Saunders (n 12). 14. Statement of Paul Newberry, 29 December 2009 < http://www.reprieve.org.uk/akmal shaikh> accessed 20 May 2010. 15. P Simpson and D Williams, ‘Gordon Brown Leads Furious Outcry as China Executes British Drugs Mule by Lethal Injection’ (30 December 2009) Mail Online < http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/world news/article-1238454/Akmal-Shaikh-Briton-executed-Chinese-firing-squad-body-returned.html> accessed 20 April 2010. 16. Articles 347–349 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China < http://www.cecc.gov/pages/newLaws/criminalLawENG.php> accessed 29 May 2010. 17. Banyan, ‘Akmal Shaikh and China's Smile Diplomacy’ (30 December 2009) The Economist < http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2009/12/post_1> accessed 20 May 2010. See too EM Lynch, ‘Will China's Courts Allow another Mentally Ill Individual to be Executed?’ (26 October 2009) < http://chinalawandpolicy.com/tag/akmal-shaikh/> accessed 29 May 2010. 18. ‘Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China’ < http://www.china.org.cn/english/government/207319.htm> accessed 20 May 2010. See also X Wang, JD Livingston, J Brink and E Murphy, ‘Persons Found “Not Criminally Responsible on Account of Mental Disorder”: A Comparison of British Columbia, Canada and Human, China’ (2006) 164(2) Forensic Science International 93. 19. J Cohen, ‘The Akmal Shaikh Case’ (28 December 2009) < http://lawprofessors. typepad.com/china_law_prof_blog/2009/12/jerome-cohen-on-the-akmal-shaikh-case.html> accessed 25 May 2010; see, too, Reprieve, ‘Row Over Akmal Shaikh's Execution’ (29 January 2010) < http://www.reprieve.org.uk/2010_01_26execution_ row> accessed 29 May 2010. 20. Amnesty International, ‘China to Execute Akmal Shaikh on 29 December’ < http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA17/074/2009/en/c093747f-8e2c-43d8-a4bd-ff2c36dd4105/asa170742009en.html> accessed on 29 May 2010. 21. ‘Drug Accused Facing Death Penalty in China “Lured with Promise of Pop Stardom”’ (3 June 2009) The Telegraph http://www.123people.co.uk/ext/frm?ti=person%20finder&search_term=peter%20schaapveld&search_country=GB&st=person%20finder&target_url=http%3A%2F%2Flrd.yahooapis.com%2F_ylc%3DX3oDMTVnbnFoa21jBF9TAzIwMjMxNTI3MDIEYXBwaWQDc1k3Wlo2clYzNEhSZm5ZdGVmcmkzRUx4VG5makpERG5QOWVKV1NGSkJ HcTJ1V1dFa0xVdm5IYnNBeUNyVkd5Y2REVElUX2tlBGNsaWVudANib3NzBHNlcnZpY2UDQk9TUwRzbGsDdGl0bGUEc3JjcHZpZAMwUnZKQkdLSWNycGJYbm8uclI1TlIxNXlXODV4SWt3QnQuc0F BT0c1%2FSIG%3D14jrfsm68%2F**http%253A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2F news%2Fuknews%2Flaw-and-order%2F5431603%2FDrug-accused-facing-death-penalty-in-China-lured-with-promise-of-pop- stardom.html&section=news&wrt_id=134> accessed. 22. P Simpson, ‘The Desolate Tomb of Executed Briton Akmal Shaikh’ (31 December 2009) < http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1239471/Akmal-Shaikhs-desolate-tomb-picturetime.html> accessed 29 May 2010. 23. Number10.gov.uk, ‘Statement on Briton's Execution in China’ (29 December 2009) < http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page21912> accessed 29 May 2010. 24. BBC News, ‘British Anger at China Execution (29 December 2009) < http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8433704.stm> accessed 20 May 2010. 25. David Milliband, ‘Akmal Shaikh’ (29 December 2009) < http://blogs.fco.gov. uk/roller/miliband/entry/akmal_shaikh> accessed 20 May 2010. 26. Conservatives, ‘Cameron Deplores Execution of Akmal Shaikh’ (29 December 2009) < http://www.conservatives.com/News/News_stories/2009/12/Cameron_deplores_execution_of_Akmal_Shaikh.aspx> accessed 29 May 2010. 27. Swedish Presidency of the European Union, ‘Declaration by the Presidency on Behalf of the European Union on the Execution of Akmal Shaikh (29 December 2009) < http://www.se2009.eu/en/meetings_ news/2009/12/29/declaration_by_the_presid ency_on_behalf_of_the_european_union_on_ the_execution_of_akmal_shaikh> accessed 29 May 2010. 28. D Barboza, ‘China Executes Briton Despite Appeals’ (29 December 2009) New York Times < http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/30/world/asia/30china.html> accessed 29 May 2010. 29. P Simpson and D Williams, ‘Gordon Brown Leads Furious Outcry as China Executes British Drugs Mule by Lethal Injection’ (30 December 2009) Mail Online < http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/world news/article-1238454/Akmal-Shaikh-Briton-executed-Chinese-firing-squad-body-returned. html> accessed 19 April 2010. 30. BBC News, ‘British Anger at China Execution’ (29 December 2009) < http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8433704.stm> viewed 20 May 2010; P Simpson and D Williams, ‘Gordon Brown Leads Furious Outcry as China Executes British Drugs Mule by Lethal Injection’ (30 December 2009) Mail Online < http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1238454/Akmal-Shaikh-Briton-executed-Chinese-firing-squad-body-returned.html> accessed 19 April 2010. 31. M Xiaojuan, ‘Experts Defend Execution of British Smuggler’ (29 December 2009) Window on China, < http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/29/content_12723 678.htm> accessed 20 April 2010. 32. Xiaojuan (n 31). 33. M Sainsbury, ‘Briton Akmal Shaikh Executed in China’ (30 December 2009) The Australian < http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/briton-akmal-shaikh-executed-in-china/story-e6frg6so-1225814 513957> accessed 29 May 2010. 34. R Fisk, ‘Why Did No Imams Plead for Akmal Shaikh's Life to be Spared?’ (30 December 2009) The Independent < http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-why-did-no-imams-plead-for-akmal-shaikhs-life-to-be-spared-1852825.html> accessed 29 May 2010. 35. See IS Fish, “All Politics is Local' (4 January 2010) Newsweek < http://www. zonaeuropa.com/20091224_1.htm> accessed 20 May 2010. 36. Amnesty International < http://www. amnesty.org.uk/actions_details.asp?Action ID=638%20> accessed 29 May 2010. 37. Reprieve, ‘Akmal Shaikh’ < http://www. reprieve.org.uk/akmalshaikh> accessed 20 May 2010. 38. BBC News (n 31). 39. A Germak, ‘China's Rebuke of Mental Illness’ (31 December 2009) Nj.com < http://www.nj.com/helpinghands/mhamorris/index.ssf/2009/12/chinas_rebuke_of_mental_illnes.html> accessed 20 April 2010. 40. See, too, Richard Charlton, Chair, Mental Health Lawyers Association, (letter 27 December 2009) < http://www.reprieve. org.uk/akmalshaikh> accessed 20 May 2010. 41. J Cohen, ‘Will Akmal Shaikh's Execution Spur China's Criminal Justice Reform?’ (4 January 2010) US Asia Law Institute < http://www.usasialaw.org/?p=2575> ac cessed 29 May 2010. 42. China.news.com.au (31 December 2009) < http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20091224_1. htm> accessed 20 May 2010. 43. Cohen (n 19). 44. See I Freckelton, ‘Reform of Insanity Laws Needed in China: Lessons from the Qiu Xinghua Case’ (2007) 14 Psychiatry, Psychology and Law 1. See also the execution of Yang Jia, a jobless Beijing man who stormed into a Shanghai police bureau in 2008 and killed six officers: E Pils, ‘Yang Jia and China's Unpopular Criminal Justice System’ (2009) China Rights Forum < http://hrichina.org/public/PDFs/CRF.1.2009/CRF-2009-1_Pils. pdf> accessed 29 May 2010; Guo Zhiyuan, ‘Approaching Visible Justice: Procedural Safeguards for Mental Examinations in China's Capital Cases’ (2009) Hastings Int'l. and Comp L Rev, see (1 February 2010) < http://www.usasialaw.org/?tag= yang-jia> accessed 29 May 2010. 45. See EM Lynch, ‘The Mentally Ill and Criminal Justice in China: An Interview with Professor Guo Zhiyuan’ (17 March 2010) < http://chinalawandpolicy.com/tag/akmal-shaikh/> accessed 29 May 2010. 46. The concept of insight is difficult because on the one hand it is said to be highly characteristic, for instance, of schizophrenia across cultures, and even the most reliably present feature of the disorder, but on the other, has been identified as unclear in its features and boundaries. In reviewing the literature on insight in respect of schizophrenia in 2008, Stéphane Raffard and colleagues identified that between 50 and 80% of patients with schizophrenia do not believe they have a disorder: WH Tan, TA Ban and W Guy, ‘Flexible Systems Criteria in Chronic Schizophrenia’ (1986) 27(6) Comprehensive Psychiatry 259; S Raffard, S Bayard, M-C Gely-Nargeot, D Capdeveille, M Maggi, E Barbotte, D Morris and J-P Boulenger, ‘Insight and Executive Functioning in Schizophrenia: A Multidimensional Approach’ (2009) 167(3) Psychiatry Research 239; X Amador, D Strauss, S Yale, M Flaum, J Endicott and J Gorman, ‘Assessment of Insight in Psychosis’ (1993) 150 American Journal of Psychiatry 873; S Raffard, S Bayard, D Capdevielle, F Garcia, JP Boulenger and MC Gely-Nargeot, ‘Lack of Insight in Schizophrenia: a Review. Part I: Theoretical Concept, Clinical Aspects and Amador's Model (2008) 34(6) Encephale 597. See also Charlton (n 40). Additional informationNotes on contributorsIan Freckelton The author acknowledges the helpful comments and suggestions of Dr David List, Dr Trish Molloy and Ms Cathryn Prowse.

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