Scott Panetti, Texas death row inmate, set to die, but lawyers say he's delusional
1. Scott Panetti, Texas death row inmate, set to die, but
lawyers say he's delusional
In this Nov. 19, 1999 file photo, Texas death row inmate Scott Panetti talks during a prison interview
in Huntsville, Texas, where he is on death row for the 1992 murder of his wife's parents.
AP Photo/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Scott Coomer, File
HUNTSVILLE, Texas - No one disputes that Scott Panetti - heavily armed, head shaved and wearing
camouflage - shot and killed his in-laws at their Texas Hill Country home, showering his estranged
wife and 3-year-old daughter in blood.
Panetti himself acknowledged during his 1995 capital murder trial that he had killed Joe and
Amanda Alvarado. Dressed as a cowboy, he acted as his own attorney, believing only an insane
person could prove an insanity defense.
Jurors convicted him and sentenced him to death, and he is scheduled to die on Wednesday.
Panetti's attorneys are seeking to get him off death row or, in the very least, to get his execution
date postponed so that he can undergo further psychological testing to determine if he's competent
to be put to death. They believe his case raises questions about the legality of executing the mentally
ill - an issue the U.S. Supreme Court has previously considered.
"From our perspective, this has been like a slow-moving train wreck since 1995," said Kathryn Kase,
one of his lawyers.
A diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, Panetti had been hospitalized for mental illness more than a
dozen times in the decade leading up to the September 1992 killings of the Alvarados.
A 2007 Supreme Court review of Panetti's case tweaked the criteria for executing those with severe
mental disorders by requiring inmates to not only know that they are being punished, but to also
have a "rational understanding" of their punishment. Providing little guidance other than requiring a
"fair hearing" for presentation of psychiatric evidence to consider insanity claims, the justices
returned Panetti's case to lower federal courts, which ultimately found him competent.
Seven years since his last mental evaluation, Panetti is showing increasingly aberrant delusional
behavior on death row, said Kase, who visited him a few weeks ago. He http://www.loc.gov/law/
believes his punishment is part of a satanic conspiracy to prevent him from preaching the Gospel.
"He cannot appreciate why Texas seeks to execute him," Kase said. "You have to have a rational as
well as factual understanding of why you're being executed.
"In Mr. Panetti's case, his understanding is the state wants to prevent him from preaching the
Gospel on death row and saving their souls. And clearly that's not factual or rational."
Prosecutors argue that Panetti's claims are without merit and that defense attorneys have had years
to arrange new evaluations.
Lucy Wilke, an assistant district attorney in Gillespie County, where Panetti was tried, said that as