Scott Panetti, diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia 35 years ago, was convicted of killing his wife’s parents in 1992 and sentenced to death in 1995 in Texas. But late last month, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman ruled that Panetti cannot be executed by the state because of his severe mental illness.
“The Eighth Amendment demands more than a single thread of arguably rational thought in a sea of otherwise disorganized thoughts and delusions to establish that a person rationally understands the reasons for his execution. And given the severity of Panetti’s psychosis, the Court lacks confidence in Panetti’s ability to rationally understand much of anything, let alone the ‘causal retributive connection’ between his crime and impending death in this case,” Pitman wrote in his opinion.
Panetti was convicted of killing his wife’s parents in 1992. At his trial in 1995, he represented himself as a cowboy and attempted to call as his witnesses Pope John Paul II, Jesus Christ, and John F. Kennedy. He was found guilty and sentenced to death, but appealed his conviction based on his mental incompetence. He was granted stays of execution in 2004 and 2014. In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked his execution, saying a condemned inmate must have the mental capacity to know he will be executed and understand why.
But the State of Texas refuses to quit trying to kill him. In a telephone interview with Law360, Panetti’s long-time lawyer, Gregory W. Wiercioch, said, “The decision doesn’t get rid of the death penalty. It just simply says Scott Panetti cannot be executed while he’s incompetent. . . . It’s our position that Scott Panetti is never going to regain competency because his condition has steadily deteriorated over two decades.” However, the state can appeal Pitman’s opinion to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and from there, it could go to the US Supreme Court again.