Execution of Mentally Ill Killer Blocked

Execution of Mentally Ill Killer Blocked

By PETE YOST
The Associated Press
Thursday, June 28, 2007; 10:24 AM

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the execution of a Texas
killer whose lawyers argued that he should not be put to death because he is
mentally ill.
Scott Louis Panetti shot his in-laws to death 15 years ago in front of his
wife and young daughter.
Panetti knows what he did, but believes that he is on death row because he
preaches the word of God, his lawyers say.
Panetti's lawyers wanted the court to determine that people who cannot
understand the connection between their crime and punishment because of
mental illness may not be executed.
The Eighth Amendment of the Constitution bars "the execution of a person who
is so lacking in rational understanding that he cannot comprehend that he is
being put to death because of the crime he was convicted of committing,"
they said in court papers.
Texas said the court should reject Panetti's appeal on procedural grounds.
But it also argued that the court should set a tougher standard for mental
illness exceptions to capital punishment. Only if a Death Row inmate "lacks
the capacity to recognize that his punishment both is the result of his
being convicted of capital murder and will cause his death" should his
execution be halted, the state said. Panetti is competent on that basis, it
said.
The killings took place in September 1992.
A former ranch hand and native of Hayward, Wis., Panetti had a history of
mental problems before his conviction, recording 14 hospital stays over 11
years.
Four courts have said he was competent when he fired his trial lawyers. A
jury and two courts rejected his defense of not guilty by reason of
insanity. He personally argued that only an insane person could prove the
insanity defense, dressing in cowboy clothing and submitting an initial
witness list that included Jesus Christ and John F. Kennedy.
Then-Justice Lewis Powell said 20 years ago that a person may not be put to
death if he cannot perceive "the connection between his crime and his
punishment."
© 2007 The Associated Press