UPDATE: The U.S. Court of Appeals over­turned the stay of exe­cu­tion and Green was exe­cut­ed on Oct. 10. Earlier: Jonathan Green was sched­uled for exe­cu­tion in Texas on October 10, but a fed­er­al judge issued a stay because the state did not afford him due process in exam­in­ing his men­tal com­pe­ten­cy. U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Atlas said, ​“It is clear from the record that, at a min­i­mum, the tri­al court pre­vent­ed Green from pre­sent­ing tes­ti­mo­ny by treat­ing men­tal health pro­fes­sion­als, relied on an order solicit­ed from and draft­ed by the state to which Green had no oppor­tu­ni­ty to object, and applied at least one incor­rect legal stan­dard.” Green’s lawyers argued that the Texas com­pe­ten­cy hear­ing was so abrupt that med­ical per­son­nel from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, who had treat­ed Green, were not avail­able to tes­ti­fy. James Rytting, one of Green’s defense attor­neys, said, ​“Mr. Green is seri­ous­ly men­tal­ly ill; he suf­fers from schiz­o­phre­nia and con­stant hal­lu­ci­na­tions.” Rytting added that Green’s con­di­tion has wors­ened while on death row because of lack of adequate treatment. 

(M. Hennessy-Fiske, ​“Texas judge stays exe­cu­tion of man who raped, killed 12-year-old,” Los Angeles Times, October 8, 2012). See Mental Illness. Listen to DPIC’s pod­cast on Mental Illness.

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