Mentally Ill Killer's Execution Blocked

Supreme Court Blocks Execution Of Texas Man Who Has Documented History Of Mental Illness

(AP)  A divided Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the execution of a Texas killer, saying lower courts should have considered psychiatric evidence about his mental illness.

The court ruled 5-4 in the case of Scott Louis Panetti, who shot his in-laws to death 15 years ago in front of his wife and young daughter. Lawyers for the convicted murderer say that he suffers from a severe documented illness that is the source of gross delusions.

"This argument, we hold, should have been considered" when Panetti was scheduled for execution, said Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinion.

Kennedy said Panetti should have been given the opportunity to submit expert psychiatric evidence in state court because "it is uncontested" that he made a substantial showing of incompetency. Siding with Kennedy in the majority were Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.

In dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas said that Panetti had petitioned the federal courts twice in his case and the law allows only one petition.

"The court bends over backwards to allow Panetti" to bring his current claim, despite no evidence that his condition has worsened, or even changed, since 1995, Thomas wrote. He was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito.

Thomas called the majority opinion "a half-baked holding that leaves the details of the insanity standard" for the lower court to work out.

In the Panetti decision, the justices "made clear they are not talking about the broad sweep of mental illness, as some other organizations have urged," said Kent Scheidegger of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, which supports capital punishment.

One of Panetti's lawyers, Keith S. Hampton of Austin, Texas, said that "what this decision means is that you can bring in experts to try to determine a person's rationality."

Executing people like Panetti "serves no purpose and offends our sense of decency and common humanity," said Gregory W. Wiercioch, a staff attorney with Texas Defender Service who argued the case before the Supreme Court in April.

Texas had asked the court to reject Panetti's appeal on procedural grounds. Attorneys for the state also argued that the court should set a tougher standard for mental illness exceptions to capital punishment.

A former ranch hand and native of Hayward, Wis., Panetti had a history of mental problems including schizophrenia, recording 14 hospital stays over 11 years before his conviction. The killings took place in September 1992.

Four courts have said he was competent when he fired his trial lawyers. A jury and two courts rejected his defense of not guilty by reason of insanity. Panetti personally argued that only an insane person could prove the insanity defense, dressing in cowboy clothing and submitting an initial witness list that included Jesus Christ and John F. Kennedy.

Then-Justice Lewis Powell said 20 years ago that a person may not be put to death if he cannot perceive "the connection between his crime and his punishment."

The Eighth Amendment of the Constitution bars "the execution of a person who is so lacking in rational understanding that he cannot comprehend that he is being put to death because of the crime he was convicted of committing," they said in court papers.

[michellem99-2009]

In the 60s they done away with state hospitals/thats why their on the streets with no care. Mind you not all mentally ill people commit crime. I am a trekker and Starfleet's prime directive should be used to get out the middle east war and if that was the rule we would not have trained the ones we are now fighting years ago. If this man did do the crimes then he should be dealt with.

[kansas1946]

"Wow! When I saw that story about the terminally ill inmate being executed in Oklahoma, it made me think there's an opportunity just waiting for us out there. Everything is already set up and ready to go.If I want to end my life because I'm dying or I'm just ready to get it over with, they could take care of it for me, and make a buck in the process."
*********************************
godofredo29, Isn't that the truth. Americans are really pretty silly. When a person is ready to die, wants to die, is suffering, terminal, and would like to end their life peacfully, the whackos do everything in their power to stop it. Run around beating the Bible and saying that you have no right to your own life.
On the other hand, here is a guy that doesn't know his rear from roast beef, and everyone can't wait to kill him.
If fact American's can't wait to put as many people in jail as possible, and kill as many of those as they can. I always figured if I was homeless and needed a place to stay, I would just smoke a joint on the street, and voila, room and board at all the good tax payers expense. :o)

[toolmangler-2009]

Good, now give him some Psychotropic drugs and when he gets his sanity back, KILL HIM!
Posted by gunnerv1 at 12:12 PM : Jun 29, 2007


I'm with gunny on this.

[cryonbrian]

The white man always pulls a fast one! LOL

[bequialife]

to: whatithink

Although I agree with most of your post, sometimes a person is just born a bad seed. No matter how good your parenting skills are, you will find that one of your two kids is a success and an angel, the other sibling is a juvenile delinquent. Both raised the same, by genuine, loving parents. We really need insane asylums to keep the dangerous ones locked up forever. It just isn't fair to the sane citizens to have a killer running around freely.

[gunnerv1]

Good, now give him some Psychotropic drugs and when he gets his sanity back, KILL HIM!

[godofredo29]

Wow! When I saw that story about the terminally ill inmate being executed in Oklahoma, it made me think there's an opportunity just waiting for us out there. Everything is already set up and ready to go. If I want to end my life because I'm dying or I'm just ready to get it over with, they could take care of it for me, and make a buck in the process. Same thing here. If I become mentally ill, say, like the guy in the movie Identity, abracadabra, and it's all over. Sign me up!

[rharrin1]

If bush was still governor he wouldn't let the court get away with this.

[drummer94]

Come on infidel_us, even you should be able to see the guys mental state was getting worse all the time. 14 hospital stays in 11 years BE4 his conviction?

[infidel_us]

Did he know what he was doing AT THE TIME OF THE SHOOTING???? That's all that matters. It doesn't matter *** his "mental state" is after the fact.
If he doesn't know he's getting ready to get strapped to old sparky and put out of his misery, so much the better for him.

All this other stuff is totally irrelevant.

[crystalblue3]

I'm usually FOR the death penalty, but after seeing this article, I researched the case. This man was CLEARLY out of his mind when he fired his lawyers and took over his own defense. During trial, he submitted court papers with pictures drawn over it and had a lot of documentation at his disposal proving his insanity...but never submitted them. When he did, they were so illegible because he had drawn all over them, that the judge refused to accept them. Those papers were his best hope for a "not guilty by reason of insanity" yet because of his own insane actions, they were unable to do him any good.

The law states that no man shall be executed if he is unable to understand WHY he's being put to death and boy does that fit here. He SHOULD be in a mental institution. As a matter of fact, he's so sure that God cured him that he's refused to take any medication for his illness for the past 10 or so years. It absolutely HAS been documented that his condition has severely deteriorated since his sentence.

[crystalblue3]

(Cont...)

But what troubles me is Clarence Thomas's reasoning that procedures weren't followed with a 2nd petition and that "Texas had asked the court to reject Panetti's appeal on procedural grounds." ***? Look, if we are going to put people to death than EVERY AVENUE SHOULD BE USED IN DETERMINING SOMEONE'S GUILT OR ELIGIBILITY IN BEING EXECUTED. Yes, he committed murder and the punishment should be just and swift HOWEVER it should also be FAIR as we hold ourselves to a MUCH higher standard than the murderers we sentence to death.

[whatithink-2009]

"The closing of mental health hospitals in California and across the United States. Is it any wonder that California seems to have all of the crazy homeless people? State mental hospitals were taken away by Governor Reagan in the seventies, and federal mental health programs were later taken away by President Reagan in the eighties.

When Ronald Reagan was governor of California he systematically began closing down mental hospitals, later as president he would cut aid for federally-funded community mental health programs. It is not a coincidence that the homeless populations in the state of California grew in the seventies and eighties. The people were put out on the street when mental hospitals started to close all over the state.

Seeing an increase in crime, and brutal murders by Herb Mullin, a mental hospital patient, the state legislature passed a law that would stop Reagan from closing even more state-funded mental health hospitals. But Reagan would not be outdone. In 1980, congress proposed new legislation (PL 96-398) called the community mental health systems act (crafted by Ted Kennedy), but the program was killed by newly-elected President Ronald Reagan. This action ended the federal community mental health centers program and its funding.

In closing, the next time you pass by a homeless person in downtown San Francisco screaming to themselves at the top of their lungs, remember Reagan."

[whatithink-2009]

snidegrass,

This has nothing to do with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That's like blaming Noah for not building a strong enough arc for the deaths during the Katrina flood.

This DOES have everything to do with Ronald Reagan and the cuts that he made to public mental health facilities in the 1980s.

[whatithink-2009]

The death penalty does not deter. Texas would be the safest place in the world if it did. You can't fight crime after the fact. Building more jails will not prevent crimes. You'll just end up with more hardened criminals. The only way to limit crime is through prevention. It's time to stop being tough on crime and start being smart on crime. Better parenting, better mental health facilities, more active church and civil support, better schools, more education and job opportunities, better relationships between the police and communities, better day care/after school facilities for working parents ARE THE ONLY WAY TO LOWER THE CRIME RATE!!

[tnt1954]

in a sane world, this individual, would have
been kept in an insane asylum his entire life.
friends to be with, games to play, gardening
to do. but the civil rights act of 1964
continues, giving the insane more rights
than the sane. and now who really is sane?
the insane? is war a result of a criminally
insane mind? bushwhacking each other? the world
has a poor image before the galactic community.
what about star trek and the prime directive? lol.

[incog-nito]

ncolsens: Your post proves that it's a good thing that the horse and buggy days are over. Back in the Middle Ages the condemned are publicly tortured and then killed in the slowest, most excruciating way they could think of. It didn't do a thing to lower crime back then.

[barbaraf4]

The whole Texas judicial system is strange. When we lived there, a case was tried in Austin during which the defense attorney slept most of the way through it.

On appeal, it stood since he hadn't slept all the way through it.

[nomorspics]

Yeah, great idea, chuck our judicial system and take anyone with a bad lawyer out back and shoot them in the head immediately.

[swwils]

I don't see how they block these executions.He didn't block the death of his victims.There are to many cry babies in this country.Take the murders and rapest out back of the court house and hang them ,the same day that their trial ends.I'll bet we would have a drop in capital crimes over night.