[JURIST] As many as 10 percent of prisoners executed in the US over the past 30 years suffered from some form of mental illness, according to a report [text] issued Tuesday by Amnesty International [advocacy website]. In a call for legal changes in the US that would prevent executions of mentally ill inmates, Amnesty noted that about 10 percent of the current 3,400 prisoners on death row also have some form of mental illness. The US Supreme Court [official website] last year barred the use of the death penalty for minors in Roper v. Simmons [opinion text; JURIST report], and in 2002 prohibited the death penalty for mentally retarded criminals in Atkins v. Virginia [opinion text]. Only Connecticut bans the execution of mentally ill prisoners. Amnesty has a news release on the report.