Nice last act, Gov. Perry.
Barring a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court,
Texas will execute Scott Louis Panetti Wednesday evening. Panetti was diagnosed as schizophrenic when he was 20, and throughout his capital murder trial displayed bizarre behavior.
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.
Panetti's lawyers are
asking the Supreme Court to stop his execution by lethal injection, and to rule on the larger issue of whether executing the mentally ill is unconstitutionally cruel. They argue that "Mr. Panetti's execution would offend contemporary standards of decency."
A coalition "including evangelical Christians, conservative leaders, the American Bar Association, former prosecutors, mental health professionals and Democratic lawmakers" has formed to oppose the execution. Judge Tom Price, an an 18-year Republican member of the Court of Criminal Appeals in Texas, wrote "It is inconceivable to me how the execution of a severely mentally ill person such as (Panetti) would measurably advance the retribution and deterrence purposes purportedly served by the death penalty." The state, of course, disagrees.
The Supreme Court was still considering Panetti's appeal as of Wednesday morning.
9:13 AM PT: Fantastic news:
BREAKING: Federal court stops scheduled execution of Texas inmate attorneys say is delusional:
http://t.co/...
— @AP