An updated AP report has been filed, "Killer of 12-year-old girl wins execution reprieve."
Green's lawyers were in the courts as his execution neared, contending his delusions and mental illness made him ineligible for execution and that he was entitled to a competency hearing.
The U.S. Supreme Court has held mental illness does not disqualify someone from execution as long as the prisoner understands the punishment he is facing and why he is being punished.
When Green's appeal was turned down earlier this week by State District Court Judge Lisa Michalk, his trial court judge in Montgomery County, his lawyers took their appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin. The appellate court, in halting the punishment, said it "needs more information" about how Michalk arrived at her decision about Green's competency because some standards mentioned in the record of her decision "are not applicable in this instance."
The appeals court gave Michalk 15 days to file a written clarification of her decision in Green's competency motion. The court also ordered Green's attorneys and prosecutors to submit written arguments discussing whether claims of competency legally can be raised under current state law.
"Execution of Texan on death row is halted," is the AP report via the Houston Chronicle.
Jonathan Marcus Green received a stay of execution from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals today, hours before he was to be put to death for the rape and murder of a 12-year-old Montgomery County girl.
The state’s highest court for criminal appeals stopped the execution after a telephone conference about four hours before Green was to enter the execution chamber. The court ordered the stay so that his mental competency can be further explored. Green’s attorney claims that he suffers from schizophrenia and no longer meets the criteria set forth by law to be eligible for execution.
The law requires that a condemned person have a rational understanding of the reason he is being put to death. A 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case of Texas inmate Scott Panetti declared that an inmate’s literal understanding that he is being put to death following his conviction for a particular crime may not be protection enough to halt the killing of clearly delusional individuals.
The Supreme Court articulated the standard for competency to be
executed in the 1986 case, Ford v.
Wainwright. The Court revisited
the issue in 2007, examining the 5th Circuit's application of the Ford standard, in the case of Scott Panetti,
a severely mentally ill Texas death row inmate.
Earlier coverage begins with this post.
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