Linda O'Neal

Guest columnist

Children are our future; what happens while they are young has life-long consequences. I recently retired after 45 years advocating in Tennessee for improving outcomes for children and families. The last several years focused on preventing adverse childhood experiences – ACEs – and mitigating their impact on children, families and society.

Research on ACEs demonstrates childhood adversity leads to trauma and toxic stress that damage the developing brain. This can cause developmental damage, violence, substance abuse, and physical and mental health challenges.

Gov. Bill Haslam and other state leaders launched Building Strong Brains Tennessee, an effort to establish Tennessee as a national model promoting culture change to prevent and mitigate ACEs and their impact, and to enhance long-term prosperity by improving outcomes for children.

The original ACEs study identified 10 types of childhood trauma. Five are personal: physical, verbal or sexual abuse, and physical or emotional neglect. Five are caused by family dysfunction: parental substance abuse, mental illness, incarceration, domestic violence and the absence/loss of a parent.

Each experience of trauma counts as one ACE. So, if before age 18, a child experiences physical abuse and a father in jail, his ACE score is two. Higher scores increase risk for poor mental and physical health outcomes (depression, addiction, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), and psychosocial outcomes (incarceration, job failure, lower education).

Individuals who become violent often have experienced substantial trauma and have high ACE scores. ACEs are facts, not fate, so safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments can reduce damage from significant childhood stressors.

David Miller has been on Tennessee’s death row nearly 37 years and is scheduled for execution Dec. 6. As a child, David experienced chronic physical, sexual and emotional trauma, giving him an irregularly high ACE score. His biological father and mother both had mental illness; his mother sexually abused him for years. David’s stepfather beat him regularly, sometimes to unconsciousness.

David repeatedly fled the abuse only to be returned home, where the beatings and sexual abuse continued. Later, he was sent to a boys’ school, another experience marked by rampant abuse and assaults. At age 14, David began experiencing seizures and episodes of losing contact with reality, attributable to his severe, chronic post-traumatic stress disorder. This condition led to the crime for which he was sentenced to death.

David was dating Lee Standifer in Knoxville when she was murdered. According to court documents, he had significant memory lapses that night and couldn’t explain what happened. He did not dispute that he had killed Ms. Standifer, but only remembered hitting her with his fists.

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In his 1982 trial, the law did not allow a defense expert as it does today, so no expert testified about David’s diminished mental health. The law had changed by his resentencing in 1987, but his attorney failed to call an expert to testify about his brain damage and psychosis, factors juries often find warrant a sentence of life in prison instead of the death penalty.

Though lay witnesses shared his history of abuse in his resentencing in 1987, Tennessee’s death penalty statute failed to let the jury weigh this as mitigation, a defect in Tennessee law since addressed. Today, jurors can consider any facts supporting a life sentence over a death sentence.

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Someone with a life-long history of ACEs whose abuse and mental health problems weren’t properly considered by the courts should not be executed. David Miller’s traumatic experiences should have been mitigating factors and would be if he were tried today.

As we continue advocating for children today, we must also stand up for those who have been extensively victimized since childhood. In cases like David’s, execution is not the answer.

Linda O'Neal is a retired child advocate.