U.S. District Court Judge Sam Sparks in Texas has ruled Scott Panetti men­tal­ly com­pe­tent enough to be exe­cut­ed. Panetti’s ear­li­er path to exe­cu­tion was blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court, which heard his appeal in 2007 (Panetti v. Quarterman). The Court held that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit had used too nar­row a stan­dard in decid­ing whether Panetti had an under­stand­ing of why he was to be exe­cut­ed. The Court also held that Texas had not giv­en Panetti an ade­quate hear­ing to deter­mine his com­pe­ten­cy. The U.S. Supreme Court has pre­vi­ous­ly held that it is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al to exe­cute some­one who is insane (Ford v. Wainwright (1986)).

At his orig­i­nal tri­al, Scott Panetti act­ed as his own attor­ney while wear­ing a pur­ple cow­boy suit. He sub­poe­naed the late President John F. Kennedy and Jesus. He has been treat­ed for schiz­o­phre­nia and para­noid delu­sions and been hos­pi­tal­ized for men­tal ill­ness on numer­ous occa­sions. He believes he is being exe­cut­ed because satan­ic forces want him silenced from preach­ing the Gospel, not for the shoot­ing of two peo­ple. The Supreme Court sent Panetti’s case back to fed­er­al District Court to apply the broad­er stan­dard in deter­min­ing if he was men­tal­ly com­pe­tent for exe­cu­tion. Following Judge Sparks’ rul­ing, the case will now like­ly go to the 5th Circuit and could ulti­mate­ly return to the U.S. Supreme Court.
(“U.S. District Court Judge Rules Panetti Competent,” Fredricksburg Standard, May 25, 2008). View a video about Scott Panetti’s men­tal prob­lems. See Mental Illness and Supreme Court.

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