We've had several posts and major articles in recent days about competency to be executed and the overarching issue of the mentally ill on death rows. The Charlotte Observer reports that a 60 day stay of execution has been granted in Guy LeGrande's case to provide time for a mental health evaluation. LINK
A Superior Court judge in Albemarle today granted a 60-day stay in the murder case of Guy LeGrande, who was scheduled for execution on Friday.
The stay was granted so a mental health evaluation can be performed. The defense says LeGrande is psychotic and should not be executed.
In the Stanly County case, LeGrande was sent to death row for the 1993 killing of Ellen Munford. LeGrande, who psychologists say is mentally ill, was allowed to represent himself at his trial. He ripped up papers, sent letters to the judge signed "Lucifer," called the jurors "antichrists" and encouraged them to "pull the damn switch," court records say.
An attorney for LeGrande also says his client is legally entitled to a new trial because deals and rewards given to prosecution witnesses weren't disclosed during trial.
Jay Ferguson, LeGrande's attorney, has said in a motion that he found evidence of undisclosed rewards in prosecutors' files. Those files were turned over to Ferguson last month by court order, despite objections from the Stanly County District Attorney's Office.
Ferguson alleges the information about money and dropped charges wasn't shared, as required by law.
LeGrande attorneys also have asked Gov. Mike Easley for clemency because of mental illness and because they say he is a victim of racial bias, a black man convicted by an all-white jury.
LeGrande's white co-defendant, Ellen Munford's husband Tommy, was allowed to plead guilty to second-degree murder and received life in prison. Munford is eligible for parole next year.
On Friday, the Observer ran an OpEd by Julian Bond, "Mental illness in black face." LINK
The issues of mental illness and race that plague this case cannot be separated. The sad fact is that for many white Americans, mental illness is even scarier when it appears in black face. I am convinced that LeGrande was condemned to death in part because his all-white jury could not muster any empathy for this mentally ill black man who had killed a white woman in their community.
LeGrande should be punished for his role in the death of Ellen Munford. But human decency compels us to acknowledge the central role that his mental illness, entangled with racial prejudice and fear, played in both the crime and the punishment. Gov. Mike Easley has a tremendous opportunity to address an obvious injustice. He can right this wrong by commuting LeGrande's sentence to life in prison.
More on mental illness on death row is here.
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