Scott Panetti Case Roundup: Stay Issued Hours Before Execution
Stefanie Faucher
New York Times - Federal Appeals Court Halts Execution in Texas Murder Case
Associated Press - State: Texas execution won't happen Wednesday
Reuters - Texas inmate with severe mental illness gets stay of execution
Los Angeles Times - Federal appeals court stays execution of a schizophrenic Texas man
Washington Post - Appeals court issues stay for Scott Panetti, mentally ill Texas inmate facing execution
Washington Post (video) - U.S. court halts execution of mentally ill Texas inmate
USA Today - Court halts execution of mentally ill Texas inmate
CNN - Court orders Texas killer's execution postponed
NBC News - Execution of 'Delusional' Death Row Inmate Scott Panetti Halted
CBS - Texas execution stayed amid mental health dispute
MSNBC - Federal appeals court halts execution for severely mentally ill man
The Guardian - Mentally ill Texas inmate's execution stayed by federal appeals court
Huffington Post - Appeals Court Orders Texas To Hold Off On Execution Of Scott Panetti
Democracy Now blog - Breaking: Federal Court Stays Execution of Schizophrenic Man in Texas
Wall Street Journal Law Blog - Federal Appeals Court Postpones Execution of Texas Murderer
National Journal - Appeals Court Issues Stay of Controversial Execution for Scott Panetti
Mother Jones - Court Blocks Texas From Executing Mentally Ill Convict—for Now
Reason Magazine - The Right Side of Death
Reason (blog) - Texas to Execute Severely Mentally Ill Man Tonight Despite Public Outcry (Updated)
Slate - Conservative Appeals Court Stays Mentally Ill Texas Inmate's Execution in Surprise Move
The Week Magazine - Appeals court stays execution of mentally ill Texas man
New York Magazine - Court Halts the Execution of Mentally Ill Texas Inmate
Texas Tribune - Federal Appeals Court Issues Stay For Panetti
Austin American-Statesman - Appeals court halts execution of schizophrenic Texas inmate
San Antonio Express-News - Tonight’s execution halted for schizophrenic death row inmate
Houston Chronicle - Appeals court issues stay in execution of mentally ill man
San Antonio Current blog - Appeals Court Stops Texas from Killing Mentally Ill Inmate
KFDX-TV (NBC, TX) - Execution Halted of Man Considered Delusional
KTRH-AM (TX) - Federal Court Halts Execution of Mentally Ill Man
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Federal court stays execution of Wisconsin native Scott Panetti
United Press International - Court issues stay to prevent Texas from executing mentally ill man
The Independent UK - Scott Panetti: US appeals court grants stay of execution for mentally ill death row inmate
Christian Science Monitor - Federal court halts controversial execution of Scott Panetti in Texas
Raw Story - Appeals court stays execution of schizophrenic Texas man
Quartz - The court just stayed Scott Panetti’s execution. Here’s why his case is so controversial.
The Hill (blog) - Court stays controversial Texas execution
Houston Press (blog) - Fifth Circuit Issues a Stay of Execution: Scott Panetti Won't be Executed Tonight
Newser - 'Delusional' Texas Inmate Gets 11th-Hour Stay of Execution
Sputnik International - Last Minute Reprieve: Court Stays Execution of Mentally Ill Texas Man
- Breibart News - Court Stays Execution of Mentally Ill Texas Man on Detah Row
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Federal Appeals Court Halts Execution in Texas Murder Case
By DAVID MONTGOMERY, DEC. 3, 2014
An appeals court in New Orleans on Wednesday stayed the execution of a Texas man, in a case that has gained national attention as a test for issues surrounding the execution of the mentally ill.
The court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, postponed the execution, saying that it needed time to consider the larger issues surrounding the case.
The man, Scott Panetti, 56, was scheduled to be executed Wednesday in the 1992 slaying of his wife’s parents with a deer rifle as his horrified wife and daughter looked on. Mr. Panetti represented himself at his subsequent trial, wearing a cowboy costume with a purple bandanna while trying to call more than 200 witnesses, including the pope, John F. Kennedy and Jesus.
Mr. Panetti’s lawyers contend that he has suffered from schizophrenia for more than three decades and on Monday, they urged federal courts to intervene on the grounds that putting a mentally ill person to death was unconstitutional and violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
The case has drawn an outcry not only from death penalty opponents, but from others who say the execution of a mentally ill person who may not have been aware of his or her own actions crosses a legal threshold that is clearly in violation of the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment.
“Widespread and diverse voices agree that Mr. Panetti’s execution would cross a moral line and serve no retributive or deterrent value,” said Kathryn Kase, Mr. Panetti’s lead lawyer and executive director of the Texas Defender Service, which represents people facing the death penalty.
The state, however, contends in legal filings that conversations between Mr. Panetti and his parents, secretly taped by prison officials, “provide conclusive evidence that Panetti has a rational understanding of the relationship between his crime and his punishment,” and that he “has been grossly exaggerating his symptoms while being observed.”
“Panetti knows that he killed his in-laws, while his wife and child looked on, and he knows that he has been sentenced to die for that crime,” Mr. Abbott’s office said.
According to his lawyers, Mr. Panetti first received a diagnosis of a psychotic disorder in 1978, 14 years before killing his in-laws. He was hospitalized 13 times from 1978 to 1991, and in 1986 expressed “fears that the devil is after him,” according to a timeline by his lawyers.
His condition deteriorated further in the early 1990s, according to legal documents, when he failed to take prescribed antipsychotic medication and discontinued treatment at a Kerrville hospital. At one point, he brandished a cavalry sword, called himself “Sgt. Iron Horse” and asserted that residents of Fredericksburg, where he lived, were plotting against him.
His wife and 3-year-old daughter moved out, and afterward, Mr. Panetti armed himself with a sawed-off shotgun and a deer rifle, and went to his in-laws’ home, killing his wife’s parents, Joe and Amanda Alvarado. He then took his wife and daughter to a bunkhouse where he had been living. He released them unharmed in a standoff with the police, according to court documents, then changed into a suit and surrendered.
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State: Texas execution won't happen Wednesday
By MICHAEL GRACZYK, Dec. 3, 2014
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The Texas Attorney General's Office says it won't fight a federal appeals court ruling that halted an execution scheduled for Wednesday evening.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a reprieve just hours before condemned killer Scott Panetti was set to be executed.
The Wisconsin native was sentenced to death for fatally shooting his estranged wife's parents 22 years ago in Texas.
Panetti's lawyers say he's too mentally ill to be executed, and they sought the delay so he could undergo new competency tests.
The attorney general says the execution wouldn't happen Wednesday. The 5th Circuit says a hearing will be scheduled later to consider the argument.
The U.S. Supreme Court has said mentally ill people cannot be executed if they don't factually and rationally understand why they're being punished.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/03/us-usa-texas-execution-idUSKCN0JH16R20141203
Texas inmate with severe mental illness gets stay of execution
BY JON HERSKOVITZ, Dec 3, 2014
(Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court orders on Wednesday issued a stay of execution for a mentally ill Texas death row inmate who was set to be put to death later in the day for the murders two people.
Lawyers for Scott Panetti had argued the his life should be spared, saying the execution of a severely mentally ill man would be morally and legally wrong. They asked the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to issue the stay to allow for a competency hearing.
Panetti, 56, was convicted of fatally shooting his wife's parents in the central Texas town of Fredericksburg in 1992. Panetti shaved his head, sawed off a shotgun and broke into the home of Joe and Amanda Alvarado, killing the two with his wife and daughter witnessing him shoot dead his mother-in-law, the Texas attorney general said.
U.N. human rights experts on Tuesday called on Texas to halt the execution. Major Texas newspapers including the Houston Chronicle and Dallas Morning News have said in editorials the execution of a seriously mentally ill inmate would be inexcusable.
Panetti donned a cowboy suit and represented himself at his 1995 trial, often speaking incoherently and seeking to call Jesus Christ and President John F. Kennedy as defense witnesses.
Lawyers for Panetti had launched last-ditch appeals for the man they say is delusional. He was hospitalized a dozen times for psychosis and delusions in the six years leading up to the crime, they said.
"We are grateful that the court stayed tonight’s scheduled execution of Scott Panetti, a man who has suffered from schizophrenia for three decades, for a careful review of the issues surrounding his competency," said one of his lawyers, Kathryn Kase.
The Texas attorney general's office has said that courts have ruled Panetti competent to stand trial and to be executed.
(Story refiles to update headline)
(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz and David Bailey; Editing by Bill Trott)
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http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-nn-texas-execution-stayed-20141203-story.html
Federal appeals court stays execution of a schizophrenic Texas man
By Molly Hennessey-Fiske, December 3, 2014
ederal appeals court on Wednesday morning stayed the execution of a schizophrenic Texas man whose attorneys and supporters have argued is too mentally ill to legally be put to death.
Scott Panetti, 56, was scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. Central Time for murdering his wife’s parents at their Central Texas home in 1992, a crime he confessed to at trial, where he wore a cowboy costume to court, subpoenaed the pope, Jesus, John F. Kennedy and more than 200 other witnesses.
The three-judge panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans that issued the order did not say how long the execution would be stayed or why, except “to allow us to fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issue,” according to the filing.
Panetti’s attorneys issued a statement saying they were “grateful” for the stay.
"Mr. Panetti's illness, schizophrenia, was present for years prior to the crime, profoundly affected his trial, and appears to have worsened in recent years,” attorneys Greg Wiercioch and Kathryn Kase said in a statement, adding, “We believe that today's ruling is the first step in a process which will clearly demonstrate that Mr. Panetti is too severely mentally ill to be executed."
Diagnosed with schizophrenia more than three decades ago, Panetti’s attorneys said he hears voices and suffers from delusions that prevent him from understanding why he is being executed as required by the 8th Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment.
Prosecutors have disagreed, arguing that Panetti was competent to stand trial and be executed. They said his symptoms are less severe than he contends. Court-appointed state medical experts have repeatedly said they suspect Panetti faked or exaggerated symptoms of mental illness.
The U.S. Supreme Court has attempted to clarify the criteria for executing the mentally ill. In 2007, they reviewed Panetti's case and found inmates must be required to not only know that they are being punished, but to also have a "rational understanding" of why.
Panetti’s attorneys also appealed to the state district court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, requesting that they stay or delay his execution so his competency could be assessed. Both appeals were denied.
Their appeal for clemency to the state Board of Pardons and Paroles was also denied, despite support from Texas legislators, former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul and former Texas Gov. Mark White and evangelicals.
Other appeals were still pending Wednesday before Gov. Rick Perry and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Spokeswomen for Perry and Texas Atty. Gen. and Gov.-elect Greg Abbott did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
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Appeals court issues stay for Scott Panetti, mentally ill Texas inmate facing execution
By Sarah Larimer, December 3, 2014
A federal appeals court stopped the scheduled execution of a Texas inmate Wednesday, just hours before he was expected to be put to death for killing his estranged wife’s parents.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans granted the stay for Scott Panetti, whose attorneys have argued that he is too mentally ill to be executed.
“We stay the execution pending further order of the court to allow us to fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issue in this matter,” Wednesday’s ruling read. “An order setting a briefing schedule and oral argument will follow.”
Panetti wore camouflage when he drove to the home of Joe and Amanda Alvarado in 1992, breaking the lock on the front door, and entering the house. He killed his wife’s parents in front of both her and their daughter. He then held his wife and daughter hostage, before eventually surrendering to police.
According to the Associated Press:
At his trial, he acted as his own attorney, dressed in a purple cowboy outfit, attempted to subpoena more than 200 witnesses, including the pope and Jesus Christ, and took on an alternate personality, “Sarge,” to testify.
Panetti’s attorneys, Greg Wiercioch and Kathryn Kase, said in a statement that they were “grateful” for the court’s decision.
“We believe that people who live with severe mental illness should have treatment options to keep themselves and others safe,” the statement read. “When people who have severe mental illness enter our criminal justice system, the system has a moral obligation to respond appropriately to the limitations and deficits presented by mental illness.”
Attorneys for the state have argued that Panetti, who was never found incompetent or insane during legal proceedings, was fit to stand trial.
According to Texas Defender Services, the nonprofit for which Kase serves as executive director, Panetti has for decades struggled with mental illness, starting with a 1978 diagnosis of “early schizophrenia.”
“Panetti’s assertion of severe mental illness are in doubt when compared to the multiple past findings on his sanity, competency to stand trial and competency to be executed, as well as evidence submitted by the state,” said Ellen Stewart-Klein, an assistant Texas attorney general, according to AP. “Panetti’s case is an inappropriate one to create a new rule of law.”
This post has been updated.
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U.S. court halts execution of mentally ill Texas inmate
December 3, 2014
A U.S. federal appeals court issued a stay of execution for mentally ill Texas death row inmate Scott Panetti on Wednesday, who was set to be put to death for the murder of two people in 1992. (Reuters)
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http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/12/03/john-panetti-execution-halted/19836671/
Court halts execution of mentally ill Texas inmate
Rick Jervis and John Bacon, December 3, 2014
AUSTIN -- A federal appeals court in New Orleans on Wednesday halted the execution of Texas killer Scott Panetti, whose case has sparked a global debate over whether people with severe mental illnesses should be put to death for their crimes.
Panetti's lawyers say he is too delusional to be executed. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a reprieve less than eight hours before Panetti was set to receive a lethal injection. The court said it needed more time to "allow us to fully consider the late-arriving and complex legal questions at issue in this matter."
The court said oral arguments would be scheduled in the case. In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court halted his execution and called for another review of Panetti's competency. Last year, the appeals court had determined that Panetti was sufficiently competent to be executed.
Panetti dressed as a cowboy during his murder trial and, acting as his own lawyer, called John F. Kennedy, Jesus and the pope as witnesses. He's been hospitalized more than a dozen times for psychosis and delusions.
Panetti, 56, was sentenced to die for the 1992 murder of his estranged wife's parents. Despite appeals from the American Psychiatric Association, the European Union and others, Texas officials had planned on carrying out Panetti's execution at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
"This is a man that has been severely and profoundly ill since 12 years before the crime," Ron Honberg, legal director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said before the delay was announced. "It will be a travesty to proceed with this execution."
There are no statistics showing how many people with mental illnesses have been executed over the years, though those executions routinely happen, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington-based non-profit that's critical of the death penalty. An estimated 10% to 15% of people on death row in the U.S. are believed to have some form of mental illness, he said.
Whether or not to execute defendants with severe mental illnesses -- such as schizophrenia -- has been a growing topic of debate, Dieter said. A recent survey by Public Policy Polling showed 58% of those polled oppose the death penalty for persons with mental illness; 28% favor it.
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http://www.erietvnews.com/story/27537692/court-orders-texas-killers-execution-postponed
Court orders Texas killer's execution postponed
By Ashley Fantz CNN, December 3, 2014
(CNN) -- The 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has stayed the execution of Texas death row inmate Scott Panetti, who was scheduled to be put to death at 6 p.m. Wednesday, according to the court clerk's office.
Panetti's case has sparked debate for years over whether the state can execute someone who is severely mentally ill.
During his trial for the 1992 slayings of his mother- and father-in-law, Panetti represented himself -- dressed in a purple cowboy outfit -- and called Jesus, John F. Kennedy and the Pope to the stand. The now-56-year-old was convicted of shooting them to death at close range, in front of his wife and daughter.
Panetti has suffered from schizophrenia for 30 years, his lawyers say, and he was hospitalized for mental illness numerous times before the murders.
Attorney asked governor for stay
Though Panetti received initial evaluations of his mental health, his state of mind has deteriorated, his lawyer Kathryn Kase said. She noted in a letter to Texas Gov. Rick Perry that Panetti hasn't received a mental evaluation in seven years. Kase asked that Perry grant a 30-day stay to the scheduled execution so that that an evaluation can be done to determine if he understands his punishment.
It's not just Panetti's legal team that believes his execution would be a violation of the Constitution's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. Mental health professionals and advocates, members of the American Bar Association and representatives from the European Union have urged that he be spared.
More than a dozen conservative leaders -- including a Washington Times opinion editor and a Ronald Reagan biographer -- have also written to Perry, asking that Panetti's execution be halted and his sentence be commuted to life in prison.
"Rather than serving as a measured response to murder, the execution of Mr. Panetti would only serve to undermine the public's faith in a fair and moral justice system," their letter reads.
Ex-wife: He should never have stood trial
As a recent CNN opinion piece noted, Sonja Alvarado, Panetti's ex-wife wife and the daughter of his victims, filed a petition stating that because of Panetti's paranoid delusions when he committed the killings, he never should have faced trial.
"If he's executed there should be a sense of outrage," said Ron Honberg, legal director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness. "There's no question he's mentally ill. If this happens, the message would be -- 'we just don't care.'
"To execute him flies in the face of even supporters of the death penalty who say that it should be carried out with inmates who are the worst of the worst," Honberg continued. "It would be much more compassionate and practical to spend money treating inmates with mental illness rather than execute this man."
Clemency denied
The Texas Board of Pardons and Parole voted 7-0 to deny clemency in Panetti's case.
There is still an appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court, in addition to the appeal the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals granted Wednesday.
Panetti would be the 11th person Texas officials have executed in 2014.
Columbia University psychiatry professor and American Psychiatric Association member Dr. Paul Appelbaum said that he's followed the case since 2007, when the U.S. Supreme Court stopped Panetti's execution and ruled that another competency review be performed.
The Fifth Circuit found in 2013 that Panetti was competent enough to be executed.
Lately, American society has been engaged in a conversation about mental illness and the role of the death penalty for inmates who are not of sound mind, Appelbaum told CNN.
"We've come to understand that there is no legitimate penal reason to put such a person to death," he said. "It's not likely to deter people from committing crimes and given Panetti's impairment, it's not a fitting punishment."
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Execution of 'Delusional' Death Row Inmate Scott Panetti Halted
By Tracy Connor, December 3, 2014
A federal appeals court has halted the Wednesday execution of a Texas killer whose lawyers say is too mentally ill to be put to death. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the stay of execution just hours before Scott Panetti was due to be put to death for murdering his in-laws in 1992. The court said it was granting a temporary reprieve "to allow us to fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issue in this matter."
"We are really pleased that cooler heads have prevailed," defense lawyer Kathryn Kase said after the decision.
Panetti's attorneys say he is a schizophrenic whose mental problems were documented well before the killings. He represented himself at trial, where he wore a cartoonish cowboy suit and tried to subpoena the pope, Jesus and President John F. Kennedy. His lawyers say he is so "delusional" he thinks his execution is being orchestrated by Satan to punish him for jailhouse preaching. Prosecution experts have suggested that Panetti is faking, but he has not had a competency evaluation in seven years.
Lower courts had rejected Panetti's appeals in recent days but by small margins while calls for his execution to be postpond — by mental health, religious and even one conservative group — mounted. He also had petitions pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
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http://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-execution-stayed-amid-mental-health-dispute/
Texas execution stayed amid mental health dispute
December 3, 2014
HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- A federal appeals court halted the execution scheduled Wednesday of a Texas prisoner whose attorneys say is too delusional to be put to death.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the reprieve less than eight hours before condemned killer Scott Panetti was set to receive a lethal injection. Panetti was sentenced to death for fatally shooting his estranged wife's parents 22 years ago.
His lawyers argued that he's too mentally ill to qualify for capital punishment, and they sought the delay so Panetti could undergo new competency tests. Appeals also had been filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, which has said mentally ill people cannot be executed if they don't have a factual and rational understanding of why they're being punished.
In a two sentence ruling, the appeals court said it needed time to "fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issues in this matter" and said a hearing would later be scheduled.
Panetti, 56, was convicted and sentenced in 1995, three years after he shot and killed his estranged wife's parents at their home in the Texas Hill Country.
At his trial, he acted as his own attorney, dressed in a purple cowboy outfit, attempted to subpoena more than 200 witnesses, including the pope and Jesus Christ, and took on an alternate personality, "Sarge," to testify.
"Mr. Panetti's execution would offend contemporary standards of decency," attorneys Gregory Wiercioch and Kathryn Kase told the Supreme Court. Both visited with Panetti in prison in the past few weeks and said his mental condition had worsened and he should be entitled to a new round of competency tests.
State attorneys said records showed no significant change since Panetti's last formal examination seven years ago. During his trial and subsequent appeals, no court has found him incompetent or insane.
"Panetti's assertion of severe mental illness are in doubt when compared to the multiple past findings on his sanity, competency to stand trial and competency to be executed, as well as evidence submitted by the state," said Ellen Stewart-Klein, an assistant Texas attorney general. "Panetti's case is an inappropriate one to create a new rule of law."
In 1986, the Supreme Court ruled states may not execute killers whose insanity means they can't understand why they're being put to death. In 2002, the justices prohibited the execution of the mentally impaired. Five years later, ruling on an appeal from Panetti, the court said mentally ill condemned prisoners could be put to death if they have a factual and rational understanding of why they're being punished.
Panetti has insisted Satan is working through Texas prison officials to execute him to keep him from preaching the Gospel.
Stewart-Klein said defense claims of his mental condition were exaggerated and previous tests had indicated some of his behavior could be contrived.
The Hayward, Wisconsin, native was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1978 and had been hospitalized more than a dozen times for treatment in the decade before fatally shooting Joe and Amanda Alvarado. Their daughter, who was married to Panetti, and her 3-year-old daughter had moved in with them and she obtained a court order to keep Panetti away.
Enraged, he armed himself with a rifle, a sawed-off shotgun and knives, dressed in camouflage clothing and broke into the home in Fredericksburg, about 60 miles north of San Antonio. Both victims were shot a close range.
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http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/federal-appeals-court-halts-execution-severely-mentally-ill-man
Federal appeals court halts execution for severely mentally ill man
By Amanda Sakuma, December 3, 2014
A federal appeals court halted Wednesday the planned execution of Texas man Scott Panetti, a convicted murderer who has suffered more than three decades of profound mental illness. Panetti was scheduled to be executed at 7 p.m. ET Wednesday.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals granted the last-minute stay of execution after attorneys for Panetti said he was not competent enough to be executed. “We stay the execution pending further order of the court to allow us to fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issue in this matter. An order setting a briefing schedule and oral argument will follow,” the court said in a brief order.
“I’m grateful that cooler minds have prevailed in the judicial system. This is in contrast to the state of Texas’ rush to execution,” Panetti’s attorney, Kathryn Kase of the Texas Defender Service, told msnbc. “Certainly we believe that this is the first step in a process that should demonstrate once and for all that Scott Panetti is too mentally ill to be executed.”
Panetti, 56, was first documented for showing signs of early schizophrenia when he was just 20 years old. He was placed in mental hospitals upward of 15 times – some involuntarily – over the course of more than a decade. In one case in 1986, Panetti’s wife reported that he conducted an exorcism to his home, burying his furniture in his backyard because he believed the devil lived inside his belongings.
There is little doubt that Panetti committed a gruesome crime. In 1992, Panetti shaved his head, dressed in military fatigues and stormed the home of his in-laws, Joe and Amanda Alvarado. Panetti shot the couple at a point blank range, forcing his estranged wife and 3-year-old daughter to watch as they died. He later changed into a suit, and turned himself into police.
The question lies in the troublesome circumstances that led Panetti down the path to death row in the first place. After being deemed fit to stand trial, Panetti fired his lawyers, thinking they were conspiring against him. He represented himself in his own capital murder trial. Panetti showed up to court dressed in a cowboy costume with a purple bandanna. He fell asleep at points during the trial, assumed his alter-ego personality known as “Sarge” and made threatening gestures toward the jury. Panetti even attempted to subpoena more than 200 witnesses, including the pope, Jesus and John F. Kennedy.
It took just a few hours of deliberation before a jury convicted Panetti and recommended the death penalty.
If Panetti’s well-documented history of psychotic behavior wasn’t enough to paint a picture of his decades-long struggle with mental illness, that he was permitted to represent himself during his trial was enough for observers at the time to call the proceedings a “circus” and “miscarriage of justice.” After seeing the case wind through the courts in determining whether Panetti was competent enough to be executed by the state, his attorneys wondered if the country would be able to stomach the thought of killing a man whose lawyers say does not understand the consequences of his actions.
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Mentally ill Texas inmate's execution stayed by federal appeals court
Justices from fifth circuit court of appeals puts execution of Scott Panetti, who is schizophrenic, on hold over ‘complex legal questions’
Tom Dart, December 3, 2014
A mentally ill death row inmate whose impending execution attracted international condemnation was granted a reprieve by a federal appeals court on Wednesday less than eight hours before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection in the Texas state penitentiary.
The fifth circuit court issued a stay of Scott Panetti’s execution so it could “fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issue”.
“We are grateful that the court stayed tonight’s scheduled execution of Scott Panetti,” his attorneys, Greg Wiercioch and Kathryn Kase, said in a statement. “Mr Panetti has not had a competency evaluation in seven years, and we believe that today’s ruling is the first step in a process which will clearly demonstrate that Mr Panetti is too severely mentally ill to be executed.”
Panetti shot dead Joe and Amanda Alvarado, the parents of his estranged wife, Sonja, in front of her and their three-year-old daughter in the Texas hill country in 1992.
As Panetti’s execution date approached his case gained widespread attention and a number of evangelical Christians, mental health groups, legal figures and prominent conservatives called for the sentence to be commuted, along with two United Nations human rights experts.
After discovering through a media report at the end of October that an execution date had been set, the 56-year-old’s attorneys launched a series of petitions asking state and federal courts to remove him from death row or at the least to afford them more time and allocate funds to hold a fresh competency hearing. They said that his mental health had deteriorated since his previous competency hearing in 2007.
They also argued that executing someone as delusional as Panetti would serve no useful retributive or deterrent purpose and would violate the constitution’s ban on “cruel and unusual” punishments.
The Wisconsin-born US navy veteran had been admitted to hospitals more than a dozen times for a variety of mental health problems since first being diagnosed with schizophrenia aged 20 in 1978. In 1986 his first wife sought to have him committed to hospital after he tried to “exorcise the devil” from their house by burying furniture in the back yard and nailing the curtains closed.
At his 1995 trial he was allowed to represent himself and tried to call Jesus, John F Kennedy, the Pope and Anne Bancroft as witnesses. He dressed in a purple cowboy suit in court and often rambled incoherently and on irrelevant topics such as Native Americans and the death of his dog. He said the killings were perpetrated by an alter ego known as “Sarge” and mounted an insanity defence despite calling veterinarians to the stand rather than mental health experts.
Over nearly two decades a variety of state and federal courts agreed that he is seriously mentally ill yet found him competent to be executed on the basis that he has a factual and rational understanding of the relationship between his crime and his punishment. That is the legal standard set out by the supreme court in a 2007 judgment known as Panetti v Quarterman.
His pro bono attorneys challenged that interpretation, saying that he had a fixed delusion that Texas prison officials hatched a satanic plot to kill him in order to stop him preaching Christianity.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/03/scott-panetti-appeals-court_n_6262502.html
Appeals Court Orders Texas To Hold Off On Execution Of Scott Panetti
Amanda Terkel, December 3, 2014
WASHINGTON -- Less than 12 hours before the state of Texas was set to execute Scott Panetti, an appeals court issued a stay Wednesday morning, meaning Panetti's lawyers will have another chance to argue that the death penalty is unconstitutional in their client's case.
Panetti, 56, is on death row for the 1992 murder of his in-laws, whom he killed while his wife and daughter were watching. He has suffered from schizophrenia and other mental illnesses for over 30 years and been hospitalized more than a dozen times.
The execution was scheduled for 6 p.m. CST Wednesday. Panetti's supporters have argued that his sentence should be commuted to life in prison because putting him to death would violate the Eighth Amendment, which bars cruel and unusual punishment.
Now, Panetti's lawyers will have another opportunity to argue their case. As BuzzFeed reported, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of execution Wednesday morning "to allow us to fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issue in this matter." The court said it will be setting a schedule for oral arguments soon.
"We are grateful that the court stayed tonight’s scheduled execution of Scott Panetti, a man who has suffered from schizophrenia for three decades, for a careful review of the issues surrounding his competency," said Gregory W. Wiercioch and Kathryn M. Kase, Panetti's attorneys, in a statement Wednesday.
"Mr. Panetti's illness, schizophrenia, was present for years prior to the crime, profoundly affected his trial, and appears to have worsened in recent years. Mr. Panetti has not had a competency evaluation in seven years, and we believe that today's ruling is the first step in a process which will clearly demonstrate that Mr. Panetti is too severely mentally ill to be executed," they added.
The Texas Tribune reported on Monday that Kase and Wiercioch had asked the circuit court to intervene in the case, in addition to going to the U.S. Supreme Court. But the strongest pressure has been on Gov. Rick Perry (R). Unlike in other states, the Texas governor can't single-handedly commute a prisoner's sentence. Perry could, however, have ordered Panetti's execution to be delayed for 30 days so that a new mental health assessment could be conducted.
Panetti's case has attracted support from mental health reform advocates and death penalty opponents, as well as from a number of well-known conservatives. Former Texas Rep. Ron Paul and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli are among the conservatives who have been calling on Perry to step in.
Former Texas Gov. Mark White (D), who oversaw 19 executions while in office, has also said Panetti should not be killed.
"There are incredibly close and difficult calls that have to be made to either allow or prohibit the death penalty from being carried out," said White. "But Scott Panetti's plea for clemency is no such case. He is a severely mentally ill man. His trial was a sham. And executing Panetti would say far more about us than it would about the man we are attempting to kill."
During his trial, Panetti represented himself while wearing a purple cowboy costume. He tried to subpoena more than 200 witnesses, including John F. Kennedy and Jesus Christ. Prosecutors have suggested that Panetti is faking his illness.
Wiercioch and Kase have been especially upset about the way they found out their client's execution date. A judge signed an order on Oct. 16 of this year that set Panetti's execution date for Dec. 3, but the district attorney never notified the lawyers that their client had been scheduled to be put to death. Instead, they learned about the pending execution on Oct. 30, through an article in the Houston Chronicle.
"Fourteen days passed during which counsel could have been investigating the issues surrounding Mr. Panetti’s competence -- issues which the District Attorney surely knew would have to be litigated to ensure that Mr. Panetti’s execution would not violate the Eighth Amendment," Wiercioch and Kase wrote in a letter to Perry Monday, in which they requested a 30-day delay.
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http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2014/12/3/breaking_federal_court_stays_execution_of
Breaking: Federal Court Stays Execution of Schizophrenic Man in Texas
December 3, 2014
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has stayed the execution of Scott Panetti, who had been scheduled for execution in Texas tonight at 6 p.m. CT.
In a statement his legal team said:
"We are grateful that the court stayed tonight’s scheduled execution of Scott Panetti, a man who has suffered from schizophrenia for three decades, for a careful review of the issues surrounding his competency. Mr. Panetti’s illness, schizophrenia, was present for years prior to the crime, profoundly affected his trial, and appears to have worsened in recent years. Mr. Panetti has not had a competency evaluation in seven years, and we believe that today’s ruling is the first step in a process which will clearly demonstrate that Mr. Panetti is too severely mentally ill to be executed."
On Tuesday Panetti’s attorney Kathryn Kase and Ron Honberg of the National Alliance on Mental Illness appeared on Democracy Now! to discuss the case.
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http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2014/12/03/federal-appeals-court-postpones-execution-of-texas-murderer/
Federal Appeals Court Postpones Execution of Texas Murderer
By Nathan Koppel, December 3, 2014
AUSTIN, Texas—A federal appeals court has postponed the execution of a convicted Texas murderer set for Wednesday evening to consider arguments by his lawyers that he is too mentally ill to be put to death.
Scott Panetti, who was first diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1978, was set to die by lethal injection for murdering his in-laws in 1992 in front of his wife and 3-year-old daughter.
But his lawyers mounted a series of last-minute appeals to try and prevent the execution, petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court, Texas Gov. Rick Perry , and the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. On Wednesday morning, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court stayed the execution in a terse ruling, stating that it needed more time to consider the “complex legal questions” raised by lawyers.
Mr. Panetti’s case has drawn wide attention among death penalty opponents ever since his 1995 trial, during which he represented himself while dressed in a cowboy outfit and acted erratically in court, asking the judge to issue subpoenas to the pope, Jesus, and John F. Kennedy.
In a brief to the Supreme Court filed on Monday, Mr. Panetti’s lawyers argued that the execution of an inmate with severe mental illness would violate the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
“Imposition of the death penalty on people with severe mental illness, as with people with intellectual disability, does not serve the two goals of deterrence and retribution because of their reduced moral culpability,” the lawyers stated.
Lawyers with the Texas Attorney General’s Office countered in a brief to the Supreme Court on Tuesday that Mr. Panetti has long exaggerated his mental illness.
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Appeals Court Issues Stay of Controversial Execution for Scott Panetti
The Texas inmate, who is said to be mentally ill, was slated to be executed Wednesday night.
BY DUSTIN VOLZ, December 3, 2014
December 3, 2014 A federal Appeals Court issued a stay of execution Wednesday for Texas death-row inmate Scott Panetti, who was scheduled to be executed later in the day.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, one of the most conservative in the country, stayed Panetti's execution "pending further order of the court to allow us to fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issue in this matter."
Panetti's case has drawn considerable attention and controversy in recent weeks, as mental-health experts and death-penalty opponents have said he is too mentally ill to be executed. The convicted murderer of two has been repeatedly diagnosed with psychotic disorders over the past several decades; the first diagnosis was made 14 years before he killed his in-laws.
An unlikely coalition of conservatives, including former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and Baptist minister Pat Robertson, have pleaded with Texas Gov. Rick Perry to halt Panetti's execution, on grounds that "as conservatives, we must be on guard that such an extraordinary government sanction not be used against a person who is mentally incapable of rational thought."
Panetti's lawyers had also issued stay requests to the Supreme Court in order to review whether Panetti's mental state made him exempt from capital punishment under the Eighth Amendment's protection from cruel and unusual punishment. The Supreme Court was widely expected to wait to render a decision until after the 5th Circuit appeals had been exhausted.
But the 5th Circuit stay cannot be appealed because it was issued in order to preserve jurisdiction over the case, according to Panetti's attorneys.
Because the order "isn't a ruling on the merits of our claims, there's nothing for the Supreme Court to overturn," the attorneys said in a statement. The Fifth Circuit may lift its stay following further consideration of the case, however.
Panetti was scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. Central Time. He was sentenced to death in 1995 for the double murder of his then-wife's parents, but had been diagnosed as a schizophrenic in 1978. His case appeared before the Supreme Court in 2007, which ruled at the time that criminals may not be sentenced to death if they lack the competency to understand why they are being executed.
"We believe that people who live with severe mental illness should have treatment options to keep themselves and others safe," attorneys for Panetti said in a statement after the stay. "When people who have severe mental illness enter our criminal-justice system, the system has a moral obligation to respond appropriately to the limitations and deficits presented by mental illness."
Panetti, 56, represented himself during his murder trial in 1992. He wore a cowboy suit and attempted to call hundreds of witnesses to his defense, including Jesus and the pope.
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http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/12/texas-board-pardons-rejects-clemency-scott-panetti
Court Blocks Texas From Executing Mentally Ill Convict—for Now
By Stephanie Mencimer, Dec. 1, 2014
Update 12/3/2014: Less than eight hours before Scott Panetti was scheduled to die, a federal appeals court ordered a stay of execution in order to “fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issue." Panetti's lawyers responded in a statment: "Mr. Panetti's illness, schizophrenia, was present for years prior to the crime, profoundly affected his trial, and appears to have worsened in recent years. Mr. Panetti has not had a competency evaluation in seven years, and we believe that today's ruling is the first step in a process which will clearly demonstrate that Mr. Panetti is too severely mentally ill to be executed."
Today the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole voted 7-0 against recommending clemency for Scott Panetti, a severely mentally ill death row inmate who is now infamous for having represented himself at trial wearing a purple cowboy suit.
Panetti, first diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1978, was convicted of capital murder after he shaved his head, donned camo fatigues, and shot his in-laws in 1992 in a psychotic rage. But today, not even his victims think he should be executed. His ex-wife has said publicly that she believes he is deeply sick and should be spared. In the past month, a host of prominent conservatives and evangelicals have joined with death penalty opponents, mental-health groups, the European Union, the nation of Bulgaria, a former Texas governor, libertarian cult figure Ron Paul, and myriad others who have called on the board and Texas Gov. Rick Perry to spare Panetti. But even that wasn't enough to sway the governor-appointed board.
The decision means that Panetti's last real hope of avoiding execution on Wednesday lies with the US Supreme Court. Texas law doesn't give the governor independent authority to commute a sentence unless the pardons board recommends such a move—although Perry could order a one-time 30-day delay. Every Texas court that has heard Panetti's appeals in recent weeks has ruled against him, despite powerful dissents from conservative Republican judges.
With the execution less than 48 hours away, Panetti's lawyers have filed two petitions with the high court asking the justices to halt the execution and review the case to determine whether executing the mentally ill violates the Eighth Amendment. They also argue that Panetti hasn't had a mental competency hearing in seven years, and that his mental state has deteriorated significantly during that time. (He now apparently believes there's a listening device implanted in his tooth, for instance.)
This is a similar issue to the one that won Panetti a reprieve in 2007, when the Supreme Court ruled that he hadn't been afforded due process in assessing his competency to be executed. (A previous Supreme Court ruling bans use of the death penalty on people who can't understand the nature of their punishment.) The 2007 decision gave Panetti the right to a hearing on his mental competency, but it didn't do him much good. Even though Panetti still believed he was going to be executed for preaching the Gospel, and despite the fact that all but one of the doctors who testified in the hearing believed he was seriously mentally ill, the lower courts green-lighted his execution anyway. The Supreme Court denied his last appeal of those decisions this past October, clearing the way for his December 3 execution.
The Supreme Court hasn't been especially sympathetic lately to arguments about mental illness and the death penalty. Last year, it refused to block the execution of another seriously mentally ill inmate in Florida, John Ferguson, who went to his death believing he was the prince of God. But Panetti's pro bono lawyers, Kathryn Kase and Greg Wiercioch, argue that public opinion on the issue is changing, and that the law needs to change with it. They cite a new poll showing that nearly 60 percent of Americans oppose executing someone with a serious mental illness. They also reference new research showing that juries and judges today are far less likely to choose death for a mentally ill defendant than they were 20 or 30 years ago. In 11 former and current death penalty states that allow for a "guilty but mentally ill" verdict, there hasn't been a death sentence imposed on a mentally ill person in at least 20 years.
The Supreme Court petitions also seem clearly targeted at Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was the swing vote in Panetti's favor in 2007, and who is somewhat fond of citing international law in his opinions. Panetti's lawyers emphasize that executing the mentally ill is considered a major human rights violation by most other civilized countries. We'll soon know whether these arguments are proving persuasive, as Texas is moving full steam ahead for Panetti's lethal injection. The high court will have to act quickly one way or another.
The following infographic was created by the Texas Defender Service, a nonprofit group that seeks to fix the flaws in the death penalty process and ensure fair representation for capital defendants:
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http://reason.com/archives/2014/12/03/the-right-side-of-death
The Right Side of Death
Why some conservatives are changing their minds on capital punishment
Stephanie Slade, December 3, 2014
The march away from support for capital punishment was a long time coming for Ron Paul. Years ago, the Libertarian-turned-Republican then-member of Congress claimed to favor the death penalty. In 1980, he moderated his position, saying his feelings were "not so clearly defined" as they once had been. Then, in 2007, he announced that he'd had a change of heart and could no longer sanction executions "for federal purposes." But he took care to reiterate that it was merely the federal death penalty he opposed.
That was then. Now, his home state of Texas is preparing to put to death convicted murderer Scott Panetti. In recent weeks, Paul has helped to lead the charge against Panetti's execution, which was scheduled for mere hours from now until the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed it minutes ago to give the court time "to fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issue in this matter."
Paul's evolution on the issue is not necessarily surprising. He has long been something of a libertarian conscience for the Republican Party, urging fiscal discipline and military nonintervention. Libertarians tend to be against capital punishment.
What is surprising is the list of conservative leaders who have joined Paul in asking Texas Gov. Rick Perry to reduce Panetti's sentence to life in prison. Individuals like tough-on-crime former Virginia attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli, and Gary Bauer, president of the faith-and-families group American Values, recently signed a letter to that end. They note that "we must be on guard that such an extraordinary government sanction not be used against a person who is mentally incapable of rational thought."
There's some evidence the larger conservative movement is also rethinking its knee-jerk support for the death penalty. In 1994, Republicans favored the practice by an enormous 73-point margin. Twenty years later, that gap has narrowed by 19 points; a fifth of Republicans now say they're "not in favor" of the death penalty for convicted murderers.
But there are idiosyncrasies about the Panetti situation that could make it a poor bellwether. One reason so many people are objecting to this particular execution is that the inmate is believed to suffer from severe mental illness. Per the letter asking for a commutation:
Mr. Panetti [is] one of the most seriously mentally ill prisoners on death row in the United States. Rather than serving as a measured response to murder, the execution of Mr. Panetti would only serve to undermine the public's faith in a fair and moral justice system.
There's a laundry list of reasons to believe Panetti is mentally impaired, including a history of hallucinatory episodes, some leading to forced hospitalizations, that predated his crime by more than a decade. He chose to represent himself at trial and then proceeded to babble incoherently, sleep through important testimony, and attempt to call Jesus Christ to the stand. "This was no act cooked up to get him off of murder charges," wrote several signatories of the letter in a subsequent op-ed for The Washington Times.
The thought of executing a man under these circumstances is clearly disquieting to many people. But some of the conservative leaders voicing concern in this instance nonetheless say they support capital punishment as a general rule. They see the Panetti case as an exception because they believe it would be a "miscarriage of justice" to put to death someone so clearly mentally unsound—not because they believe the death penalty is inherently unjust.
There's a problem with that type of hairsplitting, however: It trusts government with the awful power to separate the truly insane from the fraudsters. The same government that conservatives routinely blast as incompetent, that brought us Internal Revenue Service targeting of Tea Party groups, and that has repeatedly deemed the schizophrenic Panetti fit for both trial and execution.
A resounding lack of faith in government to get things right on matters of life and death is a common theme among conservative anti-death penalty activists. "The greatest authority you can give government is the power to take someone's life. I think conservatives are more and more leery of the government exercising that," says Pat Nolan, who works on criminal justice issues for the American Conservative Union (ACU). "As one of my friends says, 'Do we really expect the people who run the post office to be able to determine guilt or innocence very well, and to have somebody's life depend on it?' And I guess nowadays it would be the people who designed Obamacare—would we trust them with a person's life?"
An organization called Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty (CCADP) has been making the rounds at right-of-center conferences, working to attract more GOPers using just such an argument. "If you think about the death penalty, it's everything that's not conservative," Marc Hyden, one of the group's national advocacy coordinators, tells me. "I can't think of a bigger government program than one that can kill you. So once we're able to educate conservatives about the death penalty, we're starting to see they're more open to opposing it."
It's not at all clear that conservatives' attitudes are headed for a tipping point. In the poll linked earlier, three out of four Republicans still say they're in favor of the death penalty. Will a majority ever switch sides to oppose it? "Frankly, we're a long way from there," says the ACU's Nolan. "But among conservative leaders there's more and more concern, and I think they will help prompt discussion among conservatives so that it won't just be a lockstep support of this awesome power being ceded to government."
CCADP's Hyden seems even more optimistic. "Conservatives, many of us used to support the death penalty," he says. "We thought the one thing that government could do properly was kill people. We've found out they can't even do that correctly."
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http://reason.com/blog/2014/12/03/texas-to-execute-severely-mentally-ill-m
Texas to Execute Severely Mentally Ill Man Tonight Despite Public Outcry (Updated)
Lauren Galik, Dec. 3, 2014
Tonight at approximately 6 p.m. CST Texas is scheduled to execute Scott Panetti, a man who has suffered from schizophrenia and other mental illnesses for over 30 years.
First diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1978, Panetti was hospitalized over a dozen times by 1992 and involuntarily committed to a mental hospital at least twice. On one such occasion in 1986, Panetti had buried his furniture in the backyard because he believed the devil was inside it.
In 1992, shortly after Panetti stopped taking his medication, he shaved his head, dressed in army fatigues, and killed his in-laws with a hunting rifle in front of his wife and 3-year-old-daughter. He turned himself in shortly after, and told police officers that “Sarge” was responsible for the killings.
After a jury found him competent to stand trial, a judge allowed him to represent himself in court. At his trial, Panetti wore a cowboy costume and a purple bandana and attempted to subpoena Jesus Christ, John F. Kennedy, and the Pope, along with 200 others. His statements were often incoherent and rambling, and at one point he even fell asleep. In 1995, Panetti was convicted of the murders and sentenced to death.
The central issue at hand—one which Panetti’s lawyers and the state of Texas have been arguing over for decades—is whether Panetti is insane and therefore ineligible for legal execution. In 1986, the United States Supreme Court ruled that executing a mentally insane prisoner violated the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. However, the court never defined what constituted mental “competency.”
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over the state of Texas, thus developed its own test for competency, which requires prisoners facing execution to have factual awareness of the impending execution and the state’s reasoning for it, or that they’re able to say they understand they're being executed by the state because of the crimes they’ve committed, regardless of whether they believe it or not. Because Panetti knew that he committed two murders, was set to be executed, and was aware of the state’s reason for executing him, the Fifth Circuit court ruled in 2004 that he was competent to be executed. However, witnesses for the state, a psychologist, and a clinical psychiatrist testified that Panetti believed the real reason the state wanted to execute him was to stop him from “preaching the gospel.”
That competency test wasn’t good enough for the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2007, the Court reversed the Fifth Circuit’s decision and ruled that to stand competent for execution, a prisoner must also have rational understanding of the state’s reason for execution. This meant the state must now prove that Panetti’s schizophrenic delusions don’t inhibit him from understanding the reason for his punishment.
In 2008, the Fifth Circuit held a second competency hearing for Panetti. Like in 2004, multiple expert witnesses testified Panetti believed the state was executing him to stop him from preaching the gospel. Despite their testimony, the court found Panetti had “both a factual and rational understanding of his crime, his impending death, and the casual retributive connection between the two,” and once again ruled him competent to be executed.
The state’s reasoning behind their ruling relied not on the expert witnesses testimony, but on secretly-taped conversations between Panetti and his parents in which, according to the court, he “initiates a very rational, organized conversation with his parents about various states abolishing the death penalty,” among other things. The statements made in these taped conversations prove Panetti has rational understanding of the state’s rationale for his execution, the court said.
Panetti has not had a competency hearing since 2008, though lawyers assert his mental state has deteriorated since then. It's clear that they're not the only ones who believe Panetti is too mentally ill to be executed. In recent months, Panetti’s case has generated huge amounts of outcry from groups and individuals normally silent about the death penalty in Texas, including former Texas Gov. Mark White, who called Panetti’s trial a “sham,” and 55 evangelical leaders. Even Ron Paul wrote to Gov. Rick Perry asking he grant Panetti clemency.
It’s unknown as to whether or not any of this outcry will help stop the execution from taking place. Currently, appeals are pending with the Fifth Circuit Court as to whether a new hearing will be granted in lieu of his execution today. Unless the court allows another competency hearing to take place, Gov. Perry issues a 30-day reprieve to review the case, or the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes, Panetti will be strapped to the gurney come 6 p.m. tonight.
If Panetti’s execution is carried out, it won’t be the first time Texas has executed a mentally ill prisoner. In 2004, the state executed Kelsey Patterson despite his history of psychotic behavior. During both his competency hearing and trial, Patterson testified that devices implanted in him by his lawyers were controlling his actions remotely.
Regardless of whether Panetti is ultimately executed, the entire process that’s played out in his case represents a gross miscarriage of justice. “This is a case where we've had cascading, catastrophic error and it all concerns the criminal justice system's failure to protect a severely mentally ill man,” Kathryn Kase, one of Panetti’s lawyers, told me yesterday afternoon. If Texas carries out the execution this evening, it will be an outrage.
Update: At around 11:45 EST, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of execution. The stay, which can be accessed here, reads as follows:
“We STAY the execution pending further order of the court to allow us to fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issue in this matter. An order setting a briefing schedule and oral argument will follow.”
It is unclear what "late arriving and complex legal questions" have arisen that weren't present in years past. If I had to guess, I'd say the public (and notably conservative) outcry may have played a role here.
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Conservative Appeals Court Stays Mentally Ill Texas Inmate's Execution in Surprise Move
By Ben Mathis-Lilley, December 3, 2014
A generally conservative appeals court has stayed the execution of a mentally ill Texas inmate who was scheduled to be put to death at 7 p.m. ET. From the National Journal:
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, one of the most conservative in the country, stayed Panetti's execution "pending further order of the court to allow us to fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issue in this matter."
Panetti's case has drawn considerable attention and controversy in recent weeks, as mental health experts and death penalty opponents have said he is too mentally ill to be executed.
Slate's Boer Deng and Dahlia Lithwick wrote about Panetti's case in a piece published Nov. 19. Panetti had been hospitalized many times for schizophrenia over a 12-year period before killing his estranged wife's parents in 1992. (In other words, his mental problems do not appear to have been staged for purposes of defense.) He was allowed to defend himself during the 1995 trial at which he was sentenced to death despite clear signs of mental illness—he wore a purple cowboy suit and called John F. Kennedy as a witness. According to a Supreme Court ruling in the 1986 case Ford v. Wainwright, the Eighth Amendment prohibits government from executing "a prisoner who is insane."
Write Deng and Lithwick: "The 5th Circuit, which hears cases from Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, has never found an inmate incompetent to be executed." In fact, the 5th Circuit had already upheld more than one earlier ruling declaring Panetti competent. At this time, the Texas Tribune reports, Panetti's lawyers are specifically appealing to the court to order that the execution be stopped until their client is given a new competency exam because his competence has not been evaluated in seven years.
A number of prominent political figures—including Republicans such as Ron Paul, Ken Cuccinelli (the former attorney general of Virginia, and Gary Bauer—have urged Texas governor Rick Perry not to follow through with Panetti's execution.
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Appeals court stays execution of mentally ill Texas man
By Jon Terbush, December 3, 2014
A federal appeals court on Wednesday stayed the execution of a schizophrenic man just hours before Texas was scheduled to kill him. Three judges from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Texas to halt the execution of Scott Panetti so the court could "fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issue in this matter."
Panetti murdered his in-laws in 1992, though his lawyers argued he did so while suffering from delusions. (He was diagnosed with schizophrenia long before the killings, and at trial tried to subpoena Jesus.) A broad, bipartisan coalition appealed to Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) to halt the execution, though Perry declined to do so.
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http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/12/court-halts-the-execution-of-texas-inmate.html
Court Halts the Execution of Mentally Ill Texas Inmate
By Caroline Bankoff, November 3, 2014
A federal court has halted the death of Texas inmate Scott Panetti, who was scheduled to be executed today for fatally shooting his mother and father-in-law, Joe and Amanda Alvarado, in 1992. In a statement, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said it needed time "to fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issue in this matter." Panetti's lawyers have argued that their client is too mentally ill to have understood the consequences of his actions and that killing him would violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.
According to his attorneys, Panetti is schizophrenic and began having psychotic episodes 14 years before the deaths of his wife's parents. (He was hospitalized 13 times between 1974 and 1991.) Panetti was allowed to represent himself at his trial, where he wore a cowboy outfit and attempted to call JFK, the Pope, and Jesus as witnesses. His lawyers say that he believes that his execution is being "orchestrated by Satan to punish him for jailhouse preaching." The state of Texas maintains that Panetti is faking his symptoms, arguing that conversations he had with his parents show "a rational understanding of the relationship between his crime and his punishment." He hasn't had a mental competency evaluation in seven years.
NBC NEWS NYT
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Federal Appeals Court Issues Stay For Panetti
By Terri Langford, December 3, 2014
A federal appeals court on Wednesday halted the execution of a Texas death row inmate with a history of schizophrenia, just hours before he was to be put to death in Huntsville.
A two-sentence stay was released by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, one of two courts considering appeals from Scott Louis Panetti's defense team.
"We STAY the execution pending further order of the court to allow us to fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issue in this matter," the appeals court order stated. "An order setting a briefing schedule and oral argument will follow."
Panetti, 56, was to be executed Wednesday night for the 1992 shooting deaths of his in-laws, Joe and Amanda Alvarado of Kerr County.
Several lawyers, religious leaders and former lawmakers have asked Gov. Rick Perry to use his authority and stay the execution for 30 days. By late Tuesday, the governor's office declined to comment on whether Perry would act on the request.
Only action from Perry or the courts can prevent the execution from moving forward. On Monday, Panetti's lawyers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the execution, saying their client is not competent. Executing him, they argued, would violate his Eighth Amendment protection to be free of cruel and unusual punishment.
"This Court should review this case to determine whether the imposition of the death penalty on offenders with severe mental illness offends contemporary standards of decency," wrote Panetti's lawyers, Kathryn Kase and Gregory Wiercioch.
It's been nearly seven years since their client was last assessed for competence, the defense team argued.
But the Texas attorney general's office late Tuesday countered that claims of Panetti's incompetence have been "tried, appealed, reviewed in state and federal habeas proceedings and conclusively put to rest" by numerous courts.
The attorney general's brief included an affidavit from the state's director of mental health services for the Texas prison system, Dr. Joseph V. Penn, stating that none of the 14 mental health staff who have met with Panetti since 2004 have "identified any clinical signs and symptoms indicating a psychiatric diagnosis or required the need for additional mental health or psychiatric treatment such as psychotropic medications."
Court filings by the defense show that the Wisconsin native was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was 20. At the time of the murders, he had been collecting federal disability checks because the illness prevented him from holding down a job.
Panetti represented himself during his capital murder trial, sometimes dressed in a cowboy outfit. He rejected an offer to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence, and instead put on an insanity defense although he called no mental health witnesses. Panetti did try to call President John F. Kennedy, Pope John Paul II and Jesus Christ as witnesses.
Appeal filings over the years detail how Panetti was first diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1978 when he was taken to Brooke Army Medical Center following an accident in which he suffered electrical burns while working as an electrical lineman.
The diagnosis came shortly after Panetti spent only 10 months in the U.S. Navy. He would eventually be hospitalized at least a dozen times for mental illness.
According to the filing before the U.S. Supreme Court, Panetti's first wife, Jane, had her husband committed in May 1986 to a psychiatric facility after he nailed curtains in their home shut, buried household furniture in the backyard and conducted an exorcism of the devil from their home that involved spraying water over valuables that he had not buried.
A flurry of subsequent hospitalizations followed at Kerrville State Hospital and the Veterans Administration medical centers in Waco and in Kerrville.
In 1990, two years before Panetti would kill the parents of his second wife, Sonja Alvarado, he was involuntarily committed again at Kerrville State Hospital. The action was taken after Panetti began "swinging a cavalry sword around the house and threatening to kill" his wife, their baby, his wife's father and himself. Panetti's wife eventually left him to live with her parents.
On Sept. 8, 1992, Panetti shaved his head, put on camouflage combat fatigues and then, armed with a sawed-off shotgun and a deer rifle, went to the Alvarado's home and killed them both in front of their daughter and granddaughter.
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http://www.statesman.com/news/news/appeals-court-halts-execution-of-schizophrenic-tex/njKxc/
Appeals court halts execution of schizophrenic Texas inmate
By Chuck Lindell, Dec. 3, 2014
A federal appeals court on Wednesday halted the execution of a schizophrenic Texas inmate, Scott Panetti, to further review “complex legal questions” in the case.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did not list what those questions were, but Panetti’s lawyers had sought a stay of execution to allow mental health professionals to assess whether Panetti is mentally competent to be executed.
The court said it will hear oral arguments on the matter at a later date.
Texas had set Panetti’s execution for 6 p.m. Wednesday in the 1992 shooting deaths of his wife’s parents in their Fredericksburg home.
According to court records, Panetti was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1978 and hospitalized more than a dozen times to treat the illness. He also received Social Security disability payments after an agency psychiatrist determined that he wasn’t competent to manage his affairs.
Defense lawyers, arguing that Panetti does not understand why he was sentenced to death, are pressing the courts to find that the execution of severely mentally ill inmates violates the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
Panetti’s lawyers, Greg Wiercioch and Kathryn Kase, issued a statement saying they were grateful for the ruling.
“Mr. Panetti has not had a competency evaluation in seven years, and we believe that today’s ruling is the first step in a process which will clearly demonstrate that Mr. Panetti is too severely mentally ill to be executed,” they said. “When people who have severe mental illness enter our criminal justice system, the system has a moral obligation to respond appropriately to the limitations and deficits presented by mental illness.”
Prosecutors have argued that prison recordings of conversations between Panetti and his parents show he has a reasonably sophisticated understanding of his case and the legal issues involved, making him mentally competent for execution.
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Tonight’s execution halted for schizophrenic death row inmate
BY MICHELLE CASADY : DECEMBER 3, 2014
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay for condemned inmate Scott Louis Panetti on Wednesday morning — hours before he was set to be executed in Huntsville for the 1992 murders of his parents-in-law at their Fredericksburg home.
Panetti, 56, would have been the eleventh inmate executed in Texas this year.
In a one-paragraph order, the 5th Circuit justices said they would stay the execution “pending further order of the court to allow us to fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issue in this matter.” New oral arguments before the court will follow, the order stated.
Panetti’s case put a spotlight on whether a defendant has to be sane enough to understand why he is being put to death. While Panetti, diagnosed as schizophrenic in 1978, understands that he was sentenced to death for the killings of Jose and Amanda Alvarado, he has repeatedly stated he believes the true reason the state plans to execute him is to prevent him from preaching the Gospel to other inmates.
In the 11 years prior to the murders, Panetti was hospitalized 14 time for psychosis and delusions. Neighbors who spoke to the Express-News under the condition of anonymity in the days that followed the killings described him as “unstable” and an “intense person” prone to violent mood swings.
“He was a Rambo-type character if there ever was one. But when things were going good for him, he was the nicest guy you ever met,” one neighbor said.
The shootings happened a week after estranged wife Sonja Alvarado, citing Panetti’s violent tendencies and drinking habits, filed a restraining order against him. The order was supposed to prevent him from visiting her parents’ house, where she lived, to see her or their then-3-year-old daughter, Amanda.
Panetti was convicted of capital murder in 1995 after being allowed to represent himself at his trial, during which he dressed as a cowboy and occasionally spoke as an alter-ego named Sgt. Ranahan Ironhose, who he said committed the murders. He also attempted to subpoena John F. Kennedy and Jesus Christ as witnesses.
It took jurors 90 minutes to determine he was guilty and two hours to decide his sentence would be death. In 1995, life without parole was not a sentencing option for capital murder. Jurors could pick only between execution or life in prison, but with parole a possibility after 35 years.
Having been on death row for 19 years now, Panetti’s wait for execution has been well beyond the 11-year average cited by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
In 2007, his case was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. Lawyers for the state, including then-solicitor general Ted Cruz, argued that while he “plainly has some mental illness,” Panetti was exaggerating his symptoms according to six psychiatrists who examined him. The justices disagreed, and in a 5-4 decision sent his case back to the 5th Circuit Court for review. The 5th Court had decided again that he was fit to be executed prior to issuing Tuesday’s stay.
Panetti’s case has garnered international attention, including protests from the American Bar Association, evangelical leaders, the European Union and United Nations human rights investigators.
Twitter: @MichelleCasady
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Appeals court issues stay in execution of mentally ill man
By St. John Barned-Smith | December 3, 2014
federal appeals court has issued a stay of execution in the case of Scott Panetti, a mentally ill 56-year-old man charged with murdering his estranged wife's in-laws more than 20 years ago in Fredericksburg.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling stated: "We stay the execution pending further order of the court to allow us to fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issue in this matter."
Officials with Texas' Office of the Attorney General did not immediately comment on the ruling, and lawyers representing Panetti could not immediately be reached.
The stay follows a growing chorus of opposition to the execution, including a former Texas governor, 10 state legislators, dozens of former prosecutors, as well as mental health experts, prominent Christian evangelicals and conservative leaders from across the country.
Ken Williams, a professor at the South Texas College of Law who studies the death penalty, said it was extremely rare for the Fifth Circuit to issue a stay of execution on the day it was scheduled to take place.
"The ruling means the court believes there is a question as to whether or not he is mentally incompentent or was not properly evaluated by the lower courts that considered the issue," he said, calling the ruling a "very significant development."
"This is extremly rare, that stays granted on the day of execution - and in Texas, even rarer. It's very significant, it means there was some merit to [Panetti's] actual claim.
The Texas Attorney General's office did not immediately comment on the news.
In legal filings, prosecutors have argued Panetti is not as mentally ill as his advocates argue. "Panetti's mental health condition has long been exaggerated to his benefit, and he continues this long established pattern here," wrote Ellen Stewart-Klein, a Texas assistant attorney general in one brief.
Panetti, a Wisconsin native, was convicted and sentenced to death in 1995 for the shooting deaths of his estranged wife's parents, Joe and Amanda Alvarado, in their Fredericksburg home in 1992.
At his trial, Panetti represented himself and pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Dressed in a purple cowboy suit, he tried to call more than 200 witnesses in his defense, including the pope and the long-dead John F. Kennedy, and engaged in statements that were "bizarre and incomprehensible," according to his attorneys.
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Appeals Court Stops Texas from Killing Mentally Ill Inmate
By Mark Reagan, Dec 3, 2014
A mentally ill Texas inmate who shot and killed his in-laws in 1992 won't be executed today.
Scott Panetti, a diagnosed schizophrenic, believes he is being executed for preaching the gospel, not for the brutal murder he committed in front of his estranged wife and child years ago.
"We STAY the execution pending further order of the court to allow us to fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issue in this matter," the federal appeal's court order states.
Panetti's lawyers argue the man is mentally ill and the law requires the court to provide funding for access to an investigator and mental health expert to assist in his case.
"He asks this Court to stay his execution, currently scheduled for December 3, 2014, and remand the case with instructions to the district court to appoint counsel and authorize funding. In the alternative, the Court should issue a stay of execution in the interest of justice so that the Court can give the important and complex issues in this case the thoughtful deliberation they deserve," a December 1 brief states.
The stay was granted only eight hours before Panetti was scheduled for lethal injection.
"His lawyers argued that he was too mentally ill to qualify for capital punishment, and they sought the delay so Panetti could undergo new competency tests. They noted that he acted as his own attorney during trial—dressed in a purple cowboy outfit—and tried to subpoena more than 200 witnesses, including the pope and Jesus Christ," the Associated Press reported.
There is widespread support that Panetti shouldn't be executed due to his mental illnesses.
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Execution Halted of Man Considered Delusional
December 3, 2014
A Texas man diagnosed with schizophrenia scheduled to be executed this evening has received a stay from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Scott Panetti was convicted more than 20 years ago for killing his mother and father-in-law back in 1992 in Fredericksburg. The stay of execution came less than eight hours before Panetti was set to receive a lethal injection.
“We STAY the execution pending further order of the court to allow us to fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issue in this matter,” read the court’s decision. “An order setting a briefing schedule and oral argument will follow.”
The case has drawn international attention over the controversy over capital punishment and mental illness. Panetti’s lawyers contend he is too mentally ill to qualify for capital punishment, and they sought a delay for new competency tests. His attorneys also had appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court, which has said mentally ill people cannot be executed if they don’t have a factual and rational understanding of why they’re being punished.
“This is clearly a very seriously ill man, and we need to stop criminalizing mental illnesses and make sure people are getting the treatment they need,” said Karen Ranus with the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Panetti was diagnosed with Schizophrenia years before the murders. But the state has maintained the fact Panetti is not so mentally ill that he didn’t know what he was doing.
Gov. Rick Perry has received several pleas to stop the Panetti execution, including anti-death penalty groups and the United Nations.
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http://www.ktrh.com/articles/houston-news-121300/federal-court-halts-execution-of-mentally-13028096/
Federal Court Halts Execution of Mentally Ill Man
December 3, 2014
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a stay of execution for Scott Panetti to allow another competency evaluation. Panetti's lawyers claim he is too delusional to qualify for capital punishment.
*****************************************
Texas will execute a convicted murderer tonight whose lawyers claim is too mentally will to receive a lethal injection.
Scott Panetti was convicted of murdering his in-laws in front of other family members in 1992.
“The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that executing people that are mentally ill is cruel and unusual punishment, “ says Gloria Rubac with the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement.
“Scott hasn’t been evaluated since 2007. He was mentally ill then and his condition has deteriorated,” she said.
But prosecutors and pro-death penalty advocates like Dudley Sharp say Panetti has had his chances to prove he is not eligible for execution.
“He was declared competent. If the courts believe he needs another test, they’ll order it. So far they haven’t ,” Sharp said.
Sharp added that, “Panetti has had 22 years of motions and appeals that have gone through five courts that have all allowed him to stay on death row.”
His lawyers are fighting on a number of fronts to try and get tonight’s execution stopped. They are in the courtroom and have also asked Governor Rick Perry to get involved.
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Federal court stays execution of Wisconsin native Scott Panetti
By Meg Kissinger, December 3, 2014
Houston — A federal appeals court Wednesday morning stayed the execution of Wisconsin native Scott Panetti, who had been scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. in Texas for the 1992 shooting deaths of his wife's parents.
Panetti, who was first diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1978 and was hospitalized more than a dozen times before the killings, was allowed to represent himself at trial. He wore a purple cowboy suit and tried to subpoena Jesus Christ, the Pope and John F. Kennedy.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that Panetti had not been suitably examined to determine if he was competent to be executed. At the time, Panetti was a day away from execution.
Panetti was examined by five experts the next year. Three said he was not competent; two said that he was. The judge accepted the findings of the minority and re-issued the order to execute Panetti.
His lawyers say Panetti's illness has become progressively worse and he believes that he is being put to death by Satan as a way to stop him from preaching the Bible on Death Row. The state's lawyers say Panetti is faking.
The landmark case has drawn international outrage from mental health and human rights advocates. They have been joined by a coalition of libertarian politicians, led by former presidential candidate Ron Paul, and evangelical Christians who say the government is not capable of staging a proper execution.
Kathryn Kase, one of Panetti's two volunteer lawyers, spent Tuesday watching her email for any word of a reprieve.
"We're sitting on a bubble here," Kase said, glancing at her cell phone.
The attorneys were waiting for word on three fronts: the federal district court could order more time for Panetti's lawyers to have him examined; the U.S. Supreme Court could grant a petition to cancel the execution on the grounds that it is cruel and unusual punishment or Texas Gov. Rick Perry could issue a 30-day stay.
On Wednesday morning, the U.S. Court of Appeals issued a one-page ruling saying it was putting the execution on hold "to allow us to fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issue in this matter." It was unclear when it would further consider the matter.
Kase and Gregory Wierioch, a University of Wisconsin Law School professor who has represented Panetti for more than 10 years, issued this statement:
"We are grateful that the court stayed tonight's scheduled execution of Scott Panetti, a man who has suffered from schizophrenia for three decades, for a careful review of the issues surrounding his competency. Mr. Panetti's illness, schizophrenia, was present for years prior to the crime, profoundly affected his trial, and appears to have worsened in recent years. Mr. Panetti has not had a competency evaluation in seven years, and we believe that today's ruling is the first step in a process which will clearly demonstrate that Mr. Panetti is too severely mentally ill to be executed.
"We would like to remember the Alvarado family today and express our deepest sympathies for the loss of Amanda and Joe Alvarado.
"We believe that people who live with severe mental illness should have treatment options to keep themselves and others safe. When people who have severe mental illness enter our criminal justice system, the system has a moral obligation to respond appropriately to the limitations and deficits presented by mental illness."
Wierioch spent several hours with Panetti on Tuesday.
Rev. Jeff Hood, a Baptist minister from Dallas, began a prayer vigil outside the Huntsville prison.
Hood said he saw Panetti on Tuesday morning as the doomed man huddled with his family.
"I waved to him and kind of mouthed the message that we were praying for him," Hood said.
On Wednesday, after praying outside the prison for the past 21 hours, Hood simply said: "God answers prayers."
Panetti was born in Hayward and grew up in Poynette. He moved to Texas in the 1980s but often came back to visit his parents.
Panetti's sister, Victoria, flew in from Switzerland. She has circulated a petition, signed by more than 80,000 people worldwide asking for mercy.
Panetti's mother, Yvonne Panetti, a retired Rusk County mail carrier, has talked for years about the day her son would die. She vowed to be at his side when the executioner pierces his vein with the needle that will deliver the lethal poison.
"Maybe they can throw him away like trash," Yvonne Panetti told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in a 1999 interview. "But that's not what he is. He's a human being, who was sick, but no one would help."
Kase, the lawyer, said the wide coalition of people who fought to stop the execution shows an expanding consciousness "of need to protect the seriously mentally ill and of the many ways that the criminal justice fails them."
Panetti's case is an extreme example of that, she said.
"How has the criminal justice system failed him," she said. "Let me count the ways."
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Court issues stay to prevent Texas from executing mentally ill man
Conservatives including former Rep. Ron Paul and Gary Bauer have argued Texas should not execute schizophrenic killer Scott Panetti.
By Frances Burns | Updated Dec. 3, 2014
AUSTIN, Texas, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- With Scott Panetti's execution hours away in Texas, lawyers for the mentally ill man filed last-ditch appeals Tuesday and won a stay of execution from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Panetti's lawyers were running out of options. They had asked Gov. Rick Perry for a stay and filed an appeal for a stay with the U.S. Supreme Court.
On Monday, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles voted unanimously to proceed with the execution.
The Circuit Court's stay came across mid-day Wednesday. Panetti's execution was scheduled for 6 p.m. It's not clear if Perry would have blocked the execution had all the other options run out.
A number of conservatives have weighed in against the execution, joining unlikely allies like United Nations human rights lawyers. They include former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, and Gary Bauer, chairman of the Campaign for Working Families and president of American Values.
On Tuesday, the Dallas Morning News weighed in withan editorial, "Panetti and the insanity of executiing the seriously mentally ill." The newspaper contrasted the hard line on Panetti with the treatment of Bernhardt Tiede II, the inspiration for the movie "Bernie." The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which ruled against Panetti, threw out Tiede's life sentence for killing a wealthy widow, Marjorie Nugent, finding last week that jurors should have been told he had been sexually abused as a child.
There is no doubt Panetti, 56, shot his wife's parents in 1992. There is also little doubt that he has a long history of mental illness dating back to 1978, when he was first diagnosed as a schizophrenic.
"What makes Scott Panetti different is this long history that is so well documented in his medical records -- a long history of a severe, debilitating mental illness," Kathryn Kase of the Texas Defender Service told the Los Angeles Times. "He thinks the prison system implanted a listening device in his teeth and knows what he's going to do before he does it. He's all wrapped up in this delusion that the prison system wants to 'rub him out' for trying to convert these heathens and preach the gospel."
But lawyers for the state of Texas argue he does not meet the standard laid down for mental illness by the U.S. Supreme Court.
"Panetti knows that he killed his in-laws, while his wife and child looked on, and he knows that he has been sentenced to die for that crime," the Texas attorney general's office said in a court filing.
Panetti's last psychiatric evaluation was in 2007. His lawyers have also asked a U.S. appeals court to order another one, which would delay the execution.
Unless Perry or the courts intervene, Panetti is scheduled to die at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the state prison in Huntsville.
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Scott Panetti: US appeals court grants stay of execution for mentally ill death row inmate
By Tim Walker, December 3, 2014
A US federal appeals court has issued a stay of execution just hours before Scott Panetti, a severely mentally ill death row inmate, was due to die in Texas by lethal injection. Mr Panetti, 56, shot his mother- and father-in-law dead at their home in Fredericksburg, Texas in 1992, in front of his estranged wife and their three-year-old daughter.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans issued the stay less than eight hours before the execution, which had been scheduled for 6pm local time on Wednesday. The postponement gives his lawyers an opportunity to seek new tests for Mr Panetti’s mental competence, and time to argue that he is too mentally ill to qualify for the death penalty. Those who oppose capital punishment in the case have claimed that executing Mr Panetti would violate the US constitution, which prohibits “cruel and unusual” punishment.
Mr Panetti’s lawyers, Greg Wiercioch and Kathryn Kase, said they were grateful for the stay.
“We believe that today’s ruling is the first step in a process which will clearly demonstrate that Mr Panetti is too severely mentally ill to be executed,” they said. “When people who have severe mental illness enter our criminal justice system, the system has a moral obligation to respond appropriately to the limitations and deficits presented by mental illness.”
Mr Panetti was first diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic by army doctors in 1978. He was hospitalised more than a dozen times before 1992, when he donned a camouflage uniform, shaved his head and shot dead Joe and Amanda Alvarado, showering his wife Sonja and their child in blood.
Scott Panetti's execution is scheduled to take place at the Huntsville facility in Texas Scott Panetti's execution is scheduled to take place at the Huntsville facility in Texas (Getty)
At his 1995 trial, he represented himself wearing a purple cowboy outfit and attempted to call more than 200 witnesses, including JFK and Jesus Christ. He claimed he was ordered to carry out the killings by a voice in his head whom he called “Sarge”. Rather than compel him to hire a lawyer, the court allowed Mr Panetti to continue defending himself. On death row, he reportedly insists his execution was planned by Satan, to prevent him from preaching Christianity to other inmates.
It is seven years since Mr Panetti’s mental state was last evaluated. In 2007, the US Supreme Court considered his case, deciding that a prisoner who lacked “rational understanding” of why they were being executed should not be put to death. Yet the case was sent back to a lower federal court, which in 2013 concluded that he was competent and that his lethal injection could proceed.
His supporters argue that Mr Panetti’s sentence should be reduced to life in prison. They include not only his lawyers and liberal human rights groups, but also a coalition of conservatives such as the former libertarian presidential candidate and Texas congressman, Ron Paul. Texas is responsible for almost 40 per cent of executions carried out in the US since the reintroduction of the death penalty in 1977. The state has long claimed that Mr Panetti is exaggerating his condition.
Amnesty International USA researcher Rob Freer said today that the authorities had “stepped back from conducting a shameful state killing that has generated huge concern both inside and outside the USA”. He added: “Texas should now immediately set about dropping its pursuit of Scott Panetti’s execution.”
The Fifth Circuit Court, which has appellate jurisdiction over Texas, Mississippi and Lousiana, said it had issued the stay “to allow us to fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issue in this matter”.
The court said it would announce a timetable for oral arguments shortly.
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Federal court halts controversial execution of Scott Panetti in Texas
The Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday stayed the execution of Scott Panetti, a Texas man convicted of killing the parents of his estranged wife, pending further competency evaluation.
By Jacob Axelrad, DECEMBER 3, 2014
A federal appeals court in New Orleans has halted the execution of a Texas man whose case has attracted international attention and condemnation. The execution was stayed just eight hours before the execution, scheduled for Wednesday, so the court could "fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issue in this matter."
Scott Panetti had been sentenced to death by lethal injection for the 1992 killing of his estranged wife's parents with a deer rifle in front of his wife and three-year-old daughter. However, Mr. Panetti's lawyers have argued he is too mentally ill to receive the death penalty and requested that his execution be halted until further competency tests could be administered. The attorneys say he has suffered from schizophrenia for decades and that putting him to death would violate his Eighth Amendment rights, which protect against cruel and unusual punishment. A number of religious and mental health groups have also come to his defense and have called for his sentence to be reduced.
"We are grateful that the court stayed tonight's scheduled execution of Scott Panetti," his attorneys, Greg Wiercioch and Kathryn Kase, said in a statement, according to The Guardian. "Mr. Panetti has not had a competency evaluation in seven years, and we believe that today's ruling is the first step in a process which will clearly demonstrate that Mr Panetti is too severely mentally ill to be executed."
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Panetti, who was born in Wisconsin and served in the US Navy before being honorably discharged at the age of 18, was first diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1978 at age 20. He was admitted to hospitals 13 times between 1978 and 1991. In 1986, he expressed feelings of "being controlled by an unseen power" and had "fears that the devil is after him," according to a timeline provided by his lawyers. The doctor comments provided in the timeline routinely note behavior associated with schizophrenia.
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At his 1995 trial, where Panetti represented himself, he wore a cowboy costume and a purple bandanna and tried to call more than 200 witnesses, including Jesus, the pope, and President Kennedy.
"Widespread and diverse voices agree that Mr. Panetti's execution would cross a moral line and serve no retributive or deterrent value," said Kathryn Kase, Panetti's lead lawyer and executive director of the Texas Defender Service, a nonprofit that represents people facing the death penalty, according to The New York Times.
But the state of Texas argues that Panetti is sufficiently aware of the crime he committed and that he "has been grossly exaggerating his symptoms while being observed." Conversely, in a description of the case on its site, the Texas Defender Service contends that Panetti is delusional to the point where he believes he is being executed "by Satan, working through the State of Texas, to put an end to Mr. Panetti’s preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the condemned."
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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/12/appeals-court-stays-execution-of-schizophrenic-texas-man/
Appeals court stays execution of schizophrenic Texas man
By Scott Kaufman, DEC 3, 2014
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a stay of execution against Scott Panetti, who was convicted of murdering his second wife’s parents in 1992, but who had been diagnosed with “early schizophrenia” at the time of his honorable discharge from the Navy in 1978.
Panetti’s lawyers requested the say, claiming it was imperative that the Supreme Court “review this case to determine whether the imposition of the death penalty on offenders with severe mental illness offends contemporary standards of decency.”
Texas officials opposed the request, claiming that granting a stay “would undermine the sentences of a majority of the nation’s death row inmates.” Moreover, the state argued that there is “virtually no evidence of an evolving consensus against executing the mentally ill…where the law already provides multiple avenues for relief[.]”
At his trial in 1995, Panetti represented himself wearing a cowboy costume and a purple bandana. He subpoenaed over 200 people — including then-Pope John Paul II, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and Jesus Christ. Under oath, he referred to himself as “Sarge,” and described in the third person how he killed his wife’s parents.
In the punishment phase of his trial, Panetti’s closing statement was an almost unintelligible ramble in which he said that “just to touch on the spat and wasn’t cuffed, but I was bronc and Sheriff Kaiser and I had a talk, well, of the fact that I’m no longer American citizen, and because of my buckaroo case. I believe city people love horses, too, and I don’t consider myself anything above or below anyone, but I do consider myself me, and when I made my last confession at Veterans Hospital to Father De la Garza, I wasn’t Catholic.”
Yesterday, a group of conservatives wrote an open letter to Governor Rick Perry urging him to stay the execution.
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The court just stayed Scott Panetti’s execution. Here’s why his case is so controversial.
By Hanna Kozlowska, December 3, 2014
Scott Panetti, a 56-year-old convicted murderer, was scheduled to be executed tonight in Texas, by lethal injection. But this morning, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the execution “pending further order of the court to allow us to fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issue in this matter.”
Why did the court, thought to be one of the most conservative in the country, halt the execution?
Panetti has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and hospitalized 15 times, and many disputed whether he could be held accountable for his actions through such severe punishment. He was sentenced for shooting and killing his in-laws in 1992. He attributed the crime to his alter-ego, a character named Sarge, and has shown signs of mental illness many times since. Prosecutors in his case maintained he was faking the symptoms.
The case has galvanized the public, drawing criticism to the American criminal justice system that allows capital punishment for the insane.
Panetti’s lawyers have appealed multiple times to stop the execution, including asking the US Supreme Court to intervene and examine the question of executing the mentally ill. Among those asking to reduce Panetti’s sentence were a group of conservative leaders who urged Texas governor Rick Perry to commute the sentence.
“It would be immoral for the government to take this man’s life,” they wrote, emphasizing that Panetti was “mentally incapable of rational thought.” Here’s why they thought this was true:
Early signs of psychosis
Panetti showed signs of a mental disorder as a teenager, and was hospitalized on multiple occasions. His first diagnosis came in 1978 while he was in the US Navy. Delusional, he thought he embarked on a spiritual war with Satan, which included exorcising his house with water and burying the furniture in the backyard. He was institutionalized after the incident. In 1990, he was committed to a mental hospital once again after threatening to kill his wife and daughter, swinging a cavalry sword at them.
The bizarre murder and equally bizarre surrender
One day in 1992, after going off his medication, Panetti shaved his head, sawed off a shotgun, and, wearing a military-style outfit, went to the house of the parents of his estranged wife. He shot both of them in the chest in the presence of his wife and 3-year-old daughter, spraying them with their blood. Panetti held his family hostage, eventually surrendering to the police. Before he turned himself over, he put on a business suit.
The emergence of “Sarge”
At his trial, Panetti assumed the character of his hallucination, Sgt. Ranahan Iron Horse, or “Sarge,” whom he claimed was responsible for the murder. He described the events in third person, scaring the jurors by pointing an imaginary rifle at them.
An incompetent attorney
Panetti represented himself in court, sometimes wearing a cowboy costume and a purple bandana. He rejected a plea offer that would change his sentence to life imprisonment, mounting an insanity defense. But instead of calling witnesses to attest to his mental health, he tried to subpoena John F. Kennedy, pope John Paul II, Jesus Christ, and 200 others. He was incoherent during the trial, and fell asleep.
Delusions galore
According to a document rejecting one of Panetti’s petitions, experts testified that while he seemed to understand that the state was pursuing his execution for the murder of his in-laws, his delusions led him to believe “that the State was actually ‘in league with the forces of evil,’ seeking his execution ‘to prevent him from preaching the Gospel.’” The experts were unable to reach a formal conclusion whether Panetti did understand the reason for his execution.
Conflicting evaluations
Throughout Panetti’s case, various experts, psychiatrists, and clinical psychologists have declared him mentally ill. In 2008, however, the state’s experts argued that Panetti was malingering his illness, and presented coherent conversations he had with his parents as evidence. (Another expert told Slate it is “extremely doubtful” someone could fake schizophrenia for decades.) One of the main reasons why Panetti appealed for the stay of his execution was that had not received a competency evaluation in seven years.
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http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/225855-court-stays-controversial-texas-execution
Court stays controversial Texas execution
By David McCabe, December 03, 2014
A federal court is staying the execution of a Texas man, whose lawyers say is mentally ill, in a case that has brought Gov. Rick Perry (R) pressure from conservative groups.
A three-judge panel from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals stopped the execution of Scott Panetti “pending further order of the court to allow us to fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issue in this matter.”
“An order setting a briefing schedule and oral argument will follow,” the order said.
Panetti was convicted of killing his in-laws in 1992 and was set to be executed Wednesday at 6:00 p.m.
His lawyers say he has suffered from delusions since before committing the murders. He once buried furniture in his backyard to fend off the devil and subpoenaed Jesus while defending himself at his trial.
Prosecutors have said in the past they believe Panetti is feigning his mental illness.
Gov. Perry, a potential 2016 presidential contender, faced pressure from the right to intervene in the case.
Twenty leading conservatives sent the governor a letter on Monday, urging him to commute Panetti’s sentence to life in prison if the state’s parole board recommended it.
“As conservatives, we must be on guard that such an extraordinary government sanction not be used against a person who is mentally incapable of rational thought,” read the letter from the group, which includes former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R).
“It would be immoral for the government to take this man’s life,” they added.
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Fifth Circuit Issues a Stay of Execution: Scott Panetti Won't be Executed Tonight
By Dianna Wray Wed., Dec. 3 2014
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has stayed the execution of Scott Panetti, who had been scheduled for execution in Texas tonight at 6 p.m.
The order, issued by Chief Justice Carl Stewart, Judge Patrick Higginbotham and Judge Priscilla Owen reads as follows:
We STAY the execution pending further order of the court to allow us to fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issue in this matter. An order setting a briefing schedule and oral argument will follow.
In 1995 Panetti was convicted of the murders of Joe Alvarado and Amanda Alvarado, his parents-in-law on September 8, 1992 in Gillespie County. The thing is Panetti has suffered from mental illness for more than 30 years. He was diagnosed as schizophrenic in 1978 and was in and out of mental hospitals years before he committed the murders, and he didn't exactly get less erratic after.
After Panetti was indicted and charged for the crime in 1992, he insisted on representing himself and the judge on the case allowed it. He wore a cowboy outfit, trimmed with purple, and carried a cowboy Bible throughout the trial.
His legal self defense didn't improve as the trial went on. He interrogated one prospective jury member as to whether the person had any "Indian blood," before launching into a tirade about an event he called "Wounded Elbow" -- apparently he confused the battle of Wounded Knee with something to do with the Ayatollah, according to the clemency petition. He attempted to call about 200 witnesses, including JFK and Jesus Christ. Reading the transcript of the trial, Kase says she couldn't believe that no one ever forced proper representation on him.
As his execution date has approached, Panetti's legal team has been knocking on every legal door to try and get some kind of a reprieve or to get someone to review Panetti's mental state to see if he is fit to be executed. The Fifth Circuit almost never finds anyone too insane to be executed, but they have stepped in with Panetti's case.
Panetti's lawyers, Greg Wiercioch of University of Wisconsin Law School and Kathryn Kase of Texas Defender Service, issued a statement on the court's decision:
"We are grateful that the court stayed tonight's scheduled execution of Scott Panetti, a man who has suffered from schizophrenia for three decades, for a careful review of the issues surrounding his competency. Mr. Panetti's illness, schizophrenia, was present for years prior to the crime, profoundly affected his trial, and appears to have worsened in recent years. Mr. Panetti has not had a competency evaluation in seven years, and we believe that today's ruling is the first step in a process which will clearly demonstrate that Mr. Panetti is too severely mentally ill to be executed."
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http://www.newser.com/story/199468/delusional-texas-inmate-gets-11th-hour-stay-of-execution.html
'Delusional' Texas Inmate Gets 11th-Hour Stay of Execution
ATTORNEYS HAD SOUGHT REPRIEVE FOR 'DELUSIONAL' SCOTT PANETTI, WHO KILLED HIS IN-LAWS
By Jenn Gidman, December 3, 2014
(NEWSER) – No one disputes that Texas death row inmate Scott Panetti shot his second wife's parents to death in 1992 to rid them of demons. Or that during his trial, he represented himself dressed in a purple cowboy costume and tried to get 200 witness subpoenas, including ones for JFK and Jesus. Or even that he had been diagnosed as schizophrenic in 1978 and had been in and out of 12 mental hospitals over a 14-year period. But Texas state had still planned to execute him tonight—until the execution was halted by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals just eight hours before his scheduled lethal injection, the AP reports. The two-sentence ruling says the court needs time to "fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issues in this matter." Panetti's attorneys have argued that he's "delusional" and that his death wouldn't prove an effective deterrent or retribution for anybody, the AP notes.
In 2002, the Supreme Court prohibited the execution of the mentally impaired, but in a 2007 Panetti appeal, the court said mentally ill prisoners could be executed if they can reasonably understand why they're being punished. His attorneys argue he has no clue what's going on and that his mental-illness history would make his execution cruel and unusual. "Nobody exists for 36 years like this in an effort to get off the hook of criminal responsibility," a member of Panetti's defense team says, per Time. Even his ex-wife, the daughter of the victims, said in a 1999 affidavit cited by the Texas Tribune that "I know now that Scott is mentally ill and should not be put to death." Prosecutors think he's exaggerating, though, and that some of his actions are "contrived," the AP notes, adding that a hearing will soon be scheduled. (Read about other mentally ill death-row inmates in the Guardian.)
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http://us.sputniknews.com/us/20141203/1013285935.html
Last Minute Reprieve: Court Stays Execution of Mentally Ill Texas Man
By Carmen Russell-Sluchansky, December 3, 2014
Schizophrenic death row inmate Scott Panetti was charged and convicted of the murder of his in-laws. During his trial he subpoenaed Jesus and the Pope and channeled a his alter ego Sgt. Ranahan Ironhorse, on whom he blamed the murders.
The murder occurred in 1992. According to court records, Panetti held his estranged wife and their daughter hostage and made them watch as he killed his ex-wife’s parents.
While scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. Wednesday night Central Time, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay only hours before. Panetti's attorneys argued he is too delusional for execution.
Panetti was diagnosed with schizophrenia and other infirmities and had been hospitalized several times over the course of 30 years. The reprieve means that his lawyers will have another opportunity to argue that the execution of someone so mentally ill is unconstitutional.
In 1986, the Supreme Court held that executing mentally ill inmates who cannot fully understand their own cases violates the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the Eighth Amendment and the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In that case, Ford v. Wainwright, Alvin Bernard Ford had been convicted of murder in 1974 and sentenced to death in Florida. However, Ford was later thought to develop paranoid schizophrenia after he began referring to himself as Pope John Paul III, claimed to thwart a Ku Klux Klan conspiracy to bury prisoners inside the walls of the prison.
Panetti was previously granted a 60-day stay from a scheduled execution in 2004, and in 2007 the Supreme Court ruled that Panetti deserved a rehearing on his claim of mental incompetence. The rehearing did not go in Panetti’s favor, however, and another execution was scheduled.
Now there will likely be another review.
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BREAKING: COURT STAYS EXECUTION OF MENTALLY ILL TEXAS MAN ON DEATH ROW
By Sarah Rumpf, December 3, 2014
UPDATE: A three judge panel on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has stayed Panetti's execution "pending further review of the court to allow us to fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issue in this matter." The Fifth Circuit will announce a schedule for submission of legal briefs and oral arguments soon. A copy of the stay can be viewed here.
AUSTIN, Texas -- More than twenty nationally prominent conservative leaders have sent an open letter to Texas Governor Rick Perry calling on him to halt the execution of Scott Panetti, a convicted murderer with over three decades of documented severe mental illness issues. Several of the signatories to the letter spoke exclusively to Breitbart Texas to share why they believe that it would be "immoral" for Perry to fail to stop the execution, even for those who do not oppose the death penalty.
Panetti, 56, had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic in his twenties and was convicted of the 1992 murder of his wife's parents, as Breitbart Texas reported. He had a well-documented history of severe mental illness that predated the murders, having been hospitalized at least fifteen times. Court records and media reports detail disturbing, delusional behavior such as burying his furniture in the yard and nailing the curtains shut in an attempt to block out the Devil, and swinging a sword at his wife and daughter and threatening to kill them. Panetti had been prescribed powerful anti-psychotic medications, but quit taking them before he killed his in-laws in front of his wife and daughter.
Despite all the evidence presented about Panetti's mental condition, the trial court still ruled that he was not only competent to stand trial, but that he could represent himself pro se. The trial made national headlines for Panetti's bizarre behavior: he dressed up in a cowboy costume with a bright purple bandanna and attempted to subpoena over 200 witnesses including the Pope, Jesus Christ, and John F. Kennedy. The transcripts from the trial reveal countless moments of nonsensical, frantic rambling from him as he attempted to question witnesses and argue his case. The jury convicted him of both murders and sentenced him to death.
Panetti is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville at 6:00 p.m. Central Time on Wednesday, December 3rd.
His attorneys have been furiously working on last-minute appeals to get his sentence reduced to life in prison without parole, or, at minimum, to obtain a temporary reprieve. One of their main arguments supporting a delay in the execution is to allow time for a new assessment of the mental health of their client. Panetti has not had an official mental examination since 2007. His attorneys have argued that his mental condition has deteriorated significantly, likely rendering him ineligible for execution under the standards set forth by the United States Supreme Court in a case that bears his own name.
One potential avenue for hope was lost on Monday when the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles declined, in a 7-0 vote, to recommend granting a 180 day reprieve or commuting his sentence to life, according to a report by the Texas Tribune. The Board's recommendation has been sent to Perry. Perry does not have the power to grant clemency on his own, but he can reject their recommendation on the reprieve and grant one for 30 days.
Here is where the conservatives who signed the letter to Perry (the full text of which is included at the end of this article) are hoping that they can be influential, and the matter comes at a critical point for Perry as he enters the final month of his Governorship, and seeks to use his record in Texas to launch a second try at the Presidency.
The signatories, who are far from the soft-on-crime, "bleeding heart" liberal types that typically come forward to oppose an execution, include such prominent names as Brent Bozell, President of For America, Ken Cuccinelli, former Virginia Attorney General and current President of the Senate Conservatives Fund, David Keene, The Washington Times' Opinion Editor, Pat Nolan, former President of Justice Fellowship and current Director of the Center for Criminal Justice Reform at the American Conservative Union Foundation, Richard Viguerie, Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, and Gary L. Bauer, President of American Values.
They argue to save Panetti's life not by attempting to plead for mercy for him personally, but instead from a conservative, limited government perspective, urging restraint on this exercise of the most extreme of government actions:
"Each of us has been active at the national level of the conservative movement for many years, and no one could accuse us of being soft on crime. Among conservatives there is much debate about the effectiveness and the morality of the death penalty. Some crimes are so terrible, and committed with such clear malice, that some believe that execution seems the only appropriate and proportional response. But Scott Panetti's is no such case...
"The authority to take a man's life is the most draconian penalty that we allow our government to exercise. As conservatives, we must be on guard that such an extraordinary government sanction not be used against a person who is mentally incapable of rational thought. It would be immoral for the government to take this man's life...[W]e respectfully urge you to reduce Mr. Panetti's death sentence to life in prison."
Perry has a reputation as one of the nation's leaders in conservative criminal justice reform at the state level, signing into law massive reforms that significantly expanded Texas' drug courts and diversion programs, enabling the closing several prisons and saving billions of dollars, while the state's crime rate has dropped to its lowest level since 1968. He touts his accomplishments in this area as one of the major planks of the "Texas model" he uses to argue that the state's approach to government should be adopted by the rest of the country -- along with the not-quite-subtle suggestion that he is the man to lead America in enacting these policies. The Panetti case has caused several of the signatories who have praised Perry in the past for his criminal justice reform efforts to now question his judgment.
Viguerie, well known for his conservative grassroots advocacy, launched the effort to draft the letter and recruit signatories, after he became aware of Panetti's case shortly before Thanksgiving. In an exclusive interview with Breitbart Texas, Viguerie noted that while he was personally opposed to the death penalty, that was not the case for the majority of the other signatories. "You can be a strong proponent of the death penalty, but it's hard to justify [executing Panetti]," Viguerie said. "There are other ways to protect society from this person other than executing him," he continued, calling it "flat out immoral," "beyond the pale," and something that "crosses a line for a civilized society" to execute Panetti.
Viguerie said that the case "says something about those in public life" who have allowed the case to progress this far. "It calls into question, how they might handle other issues...it's disturbing and concerning to me that Perry has not acted yet."
Cuccinelli is among the signatories to the letter who supports the death penalty. "While the death penalty is clearly constitutional and appropriate in many cases, it strikes me as sad that the Texas Parole Board was unwilling to support commutation of Scott Panetti's death sentence to life imprisonment," Cuccinelli told Breitbart Texas. "While his crimes were terrible, it concerns me that a person such as Panetti, who has lived most of his life in a tortuous mental state, is not offered the slightest shred of mercy from our society. It turns the death penalty from an instrument of justice into nothing more than an act of bloody revenge by the government. In my humble opinion, that is beneath the standards that should exist in the American criminal justice system."
"The more I read about [Panetti's case], the more concerned I became," said Nolan, finding it "especially troubling" that the court had found him competent to represent himself at the trial. "That saddled him with ineffective counsel," Nolan told Breitbart Texas. "It was inappropriate and makes a joke out of the legal system, in my opinion."
Nolan rejected the claims by prosecutors that Panetti has been faking his mental illness. "If you go back, his mental illness has been long documented, back to 1978," said Nolan. "It was long documented that he had this illness, long before he killed his in-laws. It wasn't something he invented for trial." Nolan called it "stunning" that Panetti had not been examined since 2007.
"The most grievous sanction government can impose is to take someone’s life," continued Nolan. "Conservatives need to be wary of a process where someone mentally ill can be executed without due process and deliberation." Nolan acknowledged that there was "disagreement among conservatives about the morality of the death penalty" but that there was also agreement that the severely mentally ill should not should not be subject to it. Nolan told Breitbart Texas that if Panetti's execution is allowed to move forward, it proves that "something is wrong with the system."
"I hope that this provokes a discussion among conservatives about where the line stops," concluded Nolan. "Even if it is [technically] legal, it's still immoral."
Nolan contacted Perry's office before they sent the letter, to inform him of their intentions. There had been no response as of Tuesday evening, and at the time of publication, Breitbart Texas was still unaware of any communication from Perry or his staff in response to the letter.
Perry now has a critical choice to make: is he willing for one of his final official acts as Governor be allowing the State of Texas to execute of a mentally ill man?
Full text of the letter sent to Governor Perry:
Dear Governor Perry:
We respectfully ask you to commute Scott Panetti’s death sentence to life in prison if the Board of Pardons and Paroles recommends it. Mr. Panetti is one of the most seriously mentally ill prisoners on death row in the United States. Rather than serving as a measured response to murder, the execution of Mr. Panetti would only serve to undermine the public's faith in a fair and moral justice system.
Each of us has been active at the national level of the conservative movement for many years, and no one could accuse us of being soft on crime. Among conservatives there is much debate about the effectiveness and the morality of the death penalty. Some crimes are so terrible, and committed with such clear malice, that some believe that execution seems the only appropriate and proportional response. But Scott Panetti's is no such case.
Panetti has a documented history of mental illness going back to when he was 20 years old. In the subsequent decades he has been involuntarily hospitalized on fourteen separate occasions. His diagnoses include chronic schizophrenia, paranoia, hallucinations and fragmented personality, for which he was prescribed high doses of powerful psychiatric drugs for schizophrenia. He was termed manic and delusional. He heard voices and thought he was controlled by an unseen power. Panetti once nailed the curtains shut in his house to seal out the devil. It is clear that he has been suffering from severe mental illness since long before he committed the offense that landed him on death row.
>In 1986, for example, Panetti believed he was engaged in spiritual warfare with Satan and he was convinced that the devil was in his home, leading his wife to sign an affidavit to have him involuntarily committed. She testified that he attempted to exorcize his home with a series of inexplicable behaviors, including burying his furniture in the backyard. Bizarre manifestations of his illness continued – virtually unabated – right up until the tragic day on which he killed his wife's parents in 1992.
Despite this long record of mental illness, Panetti was found competent to be tried and to waive his right to counsel. Incredibly the Texas trial court allowed this delusional man to present his own "defense." His courtroom behavior was bizarre. He wore a costume of a purple cowboy suit and bandana to the trial. He picked one juror with the flip of a coin. He attempted to subpoena over 200 witnesses including John Kennedy, the Pope, and Jesus Christ. He slept through some of the testimony.
This was no act cooked up to get him off of murder charges. His severe mental illness is thoroughly documented in his medical records. And his delusions persist. Now, just days away from his scheduled execution, Panetti continues to suffer from the manifestations of his mental illness, believing that he will be executed for preaching the Gospels to his fellow prisoners, not for the murder of his in-laws.
The authority to take a man's life is the most draconian penalty that we allow our government to exercise. As conservatives, we must be on guard that such an extraordinary government sanction not be used against a person who is mentally incapable of rational thought. It would be immoral for the government to take this man's life. Should the Board recommend it, we respectfully urge you to reduce Mr. Panetti's death sentence to life in prison.
Sincerely,
Brent Bozell, President, For America
Ken Cuccinelli, President, Senate Conservatives Fund
Dave Keene, Opinion Editor, The Washington Times
Pat Nolan, Director Center for Criminal Justice Reform, the American Conservative Union Foundation
Richard Viguerie, Chairman, ConservativeHQ.com
Ron Robinson, President, Young America's Foundation
Jim Miller, Budget Director for President Ronald Reagan
Craig Shirley, Reagan Biographer
C. Preston Noell, III, President, Tradition, Family, Property, Inc.
Rebecca Hagelin, Columnist, The Washington Times
Floyd Brown, President, Western Center for Journalism
Charles Murray, WH Brady Scholar, American Enterprise Institute
Patrick A. Trueman, Attorney At Law
Mark L. Earley, Sr., Former Attorney General of Virginia and
Former President and CEO of Prison Fellowship USA
Morton Blackwell, Chairman, The Weyrich Lunch
James L. Martin, Chairman, 60 Plus Association
Tricia Erickson, President, Angel Pictures and Publicity
Maggie Gallagher, Author
Diana L. Banister, President, Shirley & Banister Public Affairs
Mark Fitzgibbons, President of Corporate Affairs, American Target Advertising
Gary L. Bauer, President, American Values
Terrence “Terry” Scanlon, President of Capital Research Center
Photo credit: Associated Press.
Follow Sarah Rumpf on Twitter @rumpfshaker
BREAKING: The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has stayed the execution of Scott Panetti, who had been scheduled for execution in Texas tonight at 6 p.m. CT.
Below is a statement from Mr. Panetti’s legal team, Greg Wiercioch of University of Wisconsin Law School and Kathryn Kase of Texas Defender Service, followed by background about the case.
"We are grateful that the court stayed tonight’s scheduled execution of Scott Panetti, a man who has suffered from schizophrenia for three decades, for a careful review of the issues surrounding his competency. Mr. Panetti's illness, schizophrenia, was present for years prior to the crime, profoundly affected his trial, and appears to have worsened in recent years. Mr. Panetti has not had a competency evaluation in seven years, and we believe that today's ruling is the first step in a process which will clearly demonstrate that Mr. Panetti is too severely mentally ill to be executed."
“We would like to remember the Alvarado family today and express our deepest sympathies for the loss of Amanda and Joe Alvarado.
“We believe that people who live with severe mental illness should have treatment options to keep themselves and others safe. When people who have severe mental illness enter our criminal justice system, the system has a moral obligation to respond appropriately to the limitations and deficits presented by mental illness.”
-Greg Wiercioch and Kathryn Kase, attorneys for Scott Panetti
-December 3, 2014
The Fifth Circuit Stay Order can be accessed here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxR5nee8pBYQU204b1NjVldOc1NJYzBkRkdrUlhKZzBIeWZ3/view?usp=sharing
Mr. Panetti’s Opening Brief at the Fifth Circuit and Request for a Stay of Execution can be accessed here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxR5nee8pBYQNl9DcjR1UDJTLUV0bTg4UmFObl9IaXZfeUxj/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxR5nee8pBYQMWVlLUROakRiUkxRRVZDaXNKMzBwazZXUmFJ/view
CASE BACKGROUND
Three-Decade History of Severe Psychosis and Delusions
Mr. Panetti has suffered from extreme mental illness for over 30 years. He was hospitalized a dozen times for psychosis and delusions in the six years leading up to the crime for which he was convicted and sentenced to death.
The first time Mr. Panetti showed signs of being afflicted with a psychotic disorder was in 1978, over 14 years before the crime. During his multiple hospitalizations, doctors diagnosed him with chronic schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder and proscribed antipsychotic medication.
In 1986, Mr. Panetti first succumbed to the delusion that he was engaged in spiritual warfare with Satan. In an affidavit his first wife signed to have him involuntarily committed, she testified that he was obsessed with the idea that the devil was in the house. He engaged in a series of bizarre behaviors to exorcize his home, including burying his furniture in the backyard because he thought the devil was in the furniture.
Two years before the crime for which he was convicted and sentenced to death, Mr. Panetti was involuntarily committed for homicidal behavior and was found to be suffering from delusions and psychotic religiosity.
The crime for which he was convicted and sentenced to death also had the hallmarks of a severely disturbed mind. While off his antipsychotic medication, Mr. Panetti shaved his head and dressed in camouflage fatigues before going to his in-laws’ home and committing the offense for which he was convicted and sentenced to death.
Detailed information about Mr. Panetti’s medical history can be found in this mental illness timeline starting in 1978 that shows how Mr. Panetti’s mental health degenerated over the years, including how in 1986, the Social Security Administration made a determination that Mr. Panetti was so disabled from schizophrenia that he was entitled to government benefits:https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1LFfr8Iqz_7c3kzWW5nRFBib1U/view?usp=sharing
Mr. Panetti’s Trial: ‘A Miserable Spectacle’
Despite being a paranoid schizophrenic, Mr. Panetti represented himself at his capital murder trial in 1995. Wearing a cowboy costume with a purple bandana and attempting to call over 200 people to the witness stand, including the Pope, John F. Kennedy, Jesus Christ and his own alter ego, Mr. Panetti was found guilty and sentenced to death.
Mr. Panetti’s statements in court, at both the guilt and sentencing phase, were bizarre and incomprehensible. He took the witnesses stand and testified about his own life in excessive and irrelevant detail.
Mr. Panetti announced that he would assume the personality of “Sarge” and recounted the gruesome details of the crime in the third person. He gestured as if pointing a rifle to the jury box (visibly upsetting the jurors) and matter- of-factly imitated the sound of shots being fired.
Fixed Delusion that Texas is Trying to Kill Him for Preaching the Gospel
In 2004, Texas tried to execute Mr. Panetti, but a federal judge court stayed the execution and the United States Supreme Court ultimately found the Fifth Circuit’s standard for determining competency to be executed unconstitutional in Panetti v. Quarterman, 551 U.S. 930 (2007). Notwithstanding that decision, Texas continued to contest Mr. Panetti’s competence to be executed. In 2013, the Fifth Circuit again found him competent to be executed – despite the District Court’s findings that he has a severe mental illness and suffers from paranoid delusions.
If his execution date is not withdrawn, he will go to the execution chamber convinced that he is being put to death for preaching the Gospels, not for the murder of his wife’s parents, and the retributive goal of capital punishment will not be served.
Widespread Support for Clemency
On November 12, 2014, Mr. Panetti's attorneys filed a clemency petition with Governor Rick Perry and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles along with letters supporting clemency from the leading Texas and national mental health organizations and professionals such as the American Psychiatric Association, Mental Health America and Disability Rights Texas; criminal justice and legal professionals including former Texas Governor Mark White, state Attorneys General and former judges and prosecutors; 55 Evangelical leaders from Texas and nationally and 7 retired and active Bishops from the United Methodist Church and other faith leaders; Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation and the American Bar Association, among others.
On November 18, 2014, worldwide support for Scott Panetti reached a groundswell with new calls for clemency from prominent individuals and organizations from across Texas and the world, including the nation’s largest grassroots advocacy organization on mental illness, National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI); NAMI’s Texas affiliate; ten legislators from Texas; former U.S. Representative Ron Paul; several more Evangelical Christians; and the European Union, which represents twenty-eight nations.
The clemency petition can be accessed through Texas Defender Service’s web page on the case: http://texasdefender.org/scott-panetti/
To access the letters supporting clemency, additional legal documents and other case resources, including a video, please go to: http://texasdefender.org/scott-panetti.
Additionally, a petition started by Mr. Panetti’s sister, Vicki Panetti, has been signed by over 95,000 concerned individuals. https://www.change.org/p/gov-rick-perry-spare-my-brother-s-life-a-severely-mentally-ill-man-on-death-row
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