Knoxville — The life of Billy Ray Irick hangs in the balance.
He's on death row, and is currently scheduled to die Aug. 9. Irick raped and killed a 7-year-old girl in Knox County in 1985.
His crime is bringing to light a larger issue for one Tennessee group.
The Tennessee Alliance for the Severe Mental Illness Exclusion fights against the death penalty for people with severe mental health issues.
The group hosted a panel Wednesday in Knoxville.
The discussion centered around the question: Should Tennessee allow people with severe mental illnesses to be punished by death?
Even early in Billy Ray Irick's life, his mental health was in question.
The Tennessee Alliance for the Severe Mental Illness Exclusion, or TASMIE, says at just eight years old, Irick stayed at a psychiatric hospital.
They say his illness is well documented.
In 1985, they say he was having hallucinations when he committed a crime that would put him on death row.
"Individuals with a serious mental illness have impairments that may cause them to do things that they wouldn't otherwise do," Dr. Jeff Stovall said.
Stovall is a professor of psychiatry at Vanderbilt University.
He says most people misunderstand mental health in criminals.
"The perception is that people with a psychiatric illness are more dangerous than someone without a psychiatric illness, when in fact the studies would tell us that people with psychiatric illness are no more likely to commit a crime than anyone else," Stovall said.
Tennessee State Senator Dr. Richard Briggs pushed to change who is eligible for the death penalty in this past legislative session.
"The death penalty is deserved for the worst of the worst who commit horrendous crimes," Briggs said. "But people have to know what they're doing to have the death penalty."
Under his bill, people with severe mental health issues would not be put to death.
It failed in the senate judiciary committee in March.
"We'll have a completely different legislature next year because of the turnover that we're having," Briggs said. "And I will refile the bill in the 2019 session. And if you fail, we'll just try, try again, because we think we're right with this."
Even if Briggs' bill had passed, it would not have impacted Irick because he was already sentenced to death.