That's the title of the second installment of "Trouble in Mind," written by Brandi Grissom, at the Texas Tribune. It's a collaboration between the Tribune and Texas Monthly examining Texas death row inmate Andre Thomas' mental illness. Here's the beginning of today's installment in the six-part series:
Wanda Banks remembers Andre Thomas and his brothers from the Sunday school classes she taught at Harmony Baptist Church, a modest brick building that welcomes parishioners with a plaque reminding them it’s a place “Where Everybody is Somebody.”Sitting in her office behind the church, Banks said she is still troubled by what became of Thomas, who for years manifested signs of mental illness before being convicted and sentenced to death in 2005 for the brutal murders of his estranged wife and her two children — one of whom was his son. (Click here to view an interactive timeline of the case.)
Banks, who would drive Thomas and his brothers in the church bus on Sundays, knew that their mother’s behavior was unusual and that the boys were regularly left to fend for themselves. But as she racked her mind to think of clues she might have missed that could have helped her steer Thomas on a better course, she came up blank.
Earlier coverage of this extraordinary journalism is at the link. That's also where earlier coverage of Andre Thomas' case begins.
Grissom's report runs in a different form in the Texas Monthly article, "Trouble in MInd: How should criminals who are mentally ill be punished?" It's in the March edition.
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