In a July 10, 2025, order, Marion County Alabama Circuit Court Judge Talmage Lee Carter issued a tem­po­rary stay of exe­cu­tion for David Lee Roberts because of con­cerns regard­ing his men­tal com­pe­ten­cy. Mr. Roberts was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on August 21. Judge Carter’s order tasked the Alabama Department of Mental Health with deter­min­ing whether Mr. Roberts has a ​“ratio­nal under­stand­ing” about why the state will exe­cute him. In his order, Judge Carter wrote, “[t]he issue is whether the petitioner’s con­cept of real­i­ty is so impaired that he can­not grasp the execution’s mean­ing and the pur­pose or the link between his crime and its punishment.” 

Counsel for Mr. Roberts argued in a recent peti­tion that his death sen­tence should be sus­pend­ed, cit­ing his severe men­tal ill­ness. According to the fil­ing, Mr. Roberts has para­noid schiz­o­phre­nia with audi­to­ry and visu­al hal­lu­ci­na­tions and recent­ly attempt­ed to burn off tat­toos he believed were con­trol­ling his thoughts. ​“This evi­dence demon­strates Mr. Roberts is incom­pe­tent to be exe­cut­ed because his delu­sions pre­vent him from hav­ing a fac­tu­al or ratio­nal under­stand­ing of the rea­son” he is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed, coun­sel wrote in their most recent peti­tion to the court. 

Several psy­chol­o­gists have met with Mr. Roberts in the last year, and each has diag­nosed him with schiz­o­phre­nia. Attorneys for Mr. Roberts not­ed these are not the first severe men­tal ill­ness diag­noses their client has received. In 2002, Mr. Roberts was diag­nosed with delu­sion­al dis­or­der and in 2009, was placed in a safe cell after writ­ing a let­ter that prison offi­cials deemed a sui­cide threat. In response to this most recent court order, Mr. Roberts will under­go an exam to deter­mine whether he is men­tal­ly ill, under­stands the rea­son Alabama intends to exe­cute him, and if he under­stands that he was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the crime in question. 

Mr. Roberts was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1992 for the mur­der of Annetra Jones in Marion County, Alabama. At tri­al, jurors found Mr. Roberts guilty of cap­i­tal mur­der and vot­ed 7 – 5 to rec­om­mend he receive a life sen­tence with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. However, the tri­al judge over­rode the jury’s rec­om­men­da­tion and sen­tenced Mr. Roberts to death. Despite judi­cial over­ride being removed from prac­tice in 2017, accord­ing to the Legal Defense Fund’s Death Row U.S.A., 29 peo­ple remain on Alabama’s death row who were sen­tenced as the result of judicial override. 

Advocates are urg­ing Governor Kay Ivey to com­mute Mr. Roberts’ sen­tence because of his severe men­tal ill­ness and oth­er ​“alarm­ing” aspects of his case. Amnesty International argues Mr. Roberts’ case should be com­mut­ed because he had inef­fec­tive legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion and the ​“judge imposed the death penal­ty against the jury deci­sion, a prac­tice now outlawed[.]” 

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Ralph Chapoco, Marion County judge sus­pends sched­uled exe­cu­tion of Alabama death row inmate, Alabama Reflector, July 30, 2025; Kim Chandler, Judge stays exe­cu­tion to eval­u­ate if Alabama inmate is com­pe­tent, Associated Press, July 25, 2025.