Panetti Case to Get Supreme Court Review - UPDATED

Panetti Case to Get Supreme Court Review - UPDATED

No one disputes that Scott Panetti has severe mental illness. He had a decade long history of hospitalizations before killing his former parents-in-law in 1992. Declared competent to stand trial, he was allowed to represent himself in his own capital murder trial, in which he dressed as a TV cowboy and behaved in a bizarre fashion. His lawyers believe that his condition has only deteriorated while on death row. The question now is whether he is competent to be executed.

The U.S. Supreme Court decided this afternoon that it will review that standard through Panetti's case. Lyle Denniston has a post at SCOTUS Blog.

Among the newly granted cases is a Texas death row case, testing whether it is unconstitutional to execute an individual who is factually aware of the reason he faces execution, but because of mental illness has a delusion about the state's actual reason for putting him to death. It is Panetti v. Quarterman (06-6407). Doctors who examined Scott Louis Panetti found him to have a mental disorder, although they concluded that he knew he was to be executed after killing his wife's parents. But the doctors concluded that Panetti had a personal belief that he was going to be put to death by the state because he was "preaching the gospel" and that the "forces of evil" were set against him. His lawyers claim that he is too mentally unstable to be executed without violating the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The appeal is supported by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. It and Panetti's petition argue that the lower court decision in his case runs against the Supreme Court's 1986 decision in Ford v. Wainwright barring the execution of the mentally ill.

Howard Bashman at How Appealing has picked up an initial Reuters filing on the Panetti cert grant, "Court to hear delusional death row inmate's case." Karl Keys has commentary here, as does Doug Berman, here.

Earlier coverage is here. More on Ford v. Wainwright is here. Expect significant news coverage tomorrow.