Stephen Bright, teaching Capital Punishment: Race, Poverty, and Disadvantage at Yale, examines how mental illness intersects with death penalty law. He walks through the legal tests courts use to decide whether a capital defendant was sane at the time of the crime, competent to stand trial, competent to plead guilty or waive appeals, and competent to be executed. The lecture covers Supreme Court and legislative standards, the evidence judges weigh in making these determinations, the practice of forcibly medicating defendants to restore trial competency, and whether a court-appointed next friend can act for a mentally ill prisoner who wants to be executed. Bright notes that some defendants' mental health deteriorates significantly while on death row, and that courts have sometimes allowed executions to proceed despite serious doubts about the prisoner's mental awareness. The lecture draws on real cases to show how these legal standards operate in practice.