Federal District Court Finds Scott Panetti Not Competent for Execution

On September 28, 2023, the Western District Court of Texas ruled that the state can­not exe­cute Scott Panetti (pic­tured), a death row pris­on­er with a decades-long his­to­ry of seri­ous men­tal health issues and a diag­no­sis of schiz­o­phre­nia. Despite a state expert con­ced­ing Mr. Panetti’s seri­ous men­tal ill­ness, Texas argued that he is com­pe­tent to face exe­cu­tion because he has ​“some degree” of ratio­nal under­stand­ing. U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman ruled, how­ev­er, that “[Mr.] Panetti is not sane enough to be exe­cut­ed” and that he ​“lack[s] a ratio­nal under­stand­ing of the con­nec­tion between his actions and his death sentence.”

In 1992, Mr. Panetti stopped tak­ing his pre­scribed antipsy­chot­ic med­ica­tion, shaved his head, dressed in cam­ou­flage fatigues, and killed his in-laws, Joe and Amanda Alvarado, after his wife obtained a restrain­ing order against him and took their daugh­ter to live with her par­ents. Even though Mr. Panetti was diag­nosed with schiz­o­phre­nia, he was found com­pe­tent to stand tri­al for the dou­ble mur­der. At tri­al, Mr. Panetti believed God had cured him of his men­tal ill­ness, prompt­ing him to again stop tak­ing his med­ica­tions, fire his attor­neys, and rep­re­sent him­self while dressed in a TV-Western cow­boy out­fit in Gillespie County, Texas. Mr. Panetti’s men­tal health impair­ments have been present for more than 40 years, with the first symp­toms of schiz­o­phre­nia appear­ing at age 20. At age 28, his first wife had him invol­un­tar­i­ly com­mit­ted to a psy­chi­atric facil­i­ty. Following this ini­tial com­mit­ment, Mr. Panetti stayed at sev­er­al psy­chi­atric facil­i­ties in Texas and Wisconsin, at which doc­tors diag­nosed him with chron­ic schiz­o­phre­nia and schizoaffective disorder.

In 2004, after exhaust­ing all of his state and fed­er­al appeals, Mr. Panetti faced an exe­cu­tion date, but a fed­er­al judge stayed this exe­cu­tion to hold a hear­ing to deter­mine his com­pe­ten­cy to be exe­cut­ed. At the hear­ing, Mr. Panetti said he believed that the dev­il was con­spir­ing with the State of Texas to thwart his divine mis­sion of sav­ing souls on death row. Despite this delu­sion, the judge declared him com­pe­tent for exe­cu­tion, argu­ing that Mr. Panetti had a ​‘fac­tu­al aware­ness’ of the rea­son­ing behind his exe­cu­tion. The Supreme Court of the United States reviewed Mr. Panetti’s case in 2007 and ruled that the 8^th amend­ment pro­hibits the exe­cu­tion of an indi­vid­ual who does not have a ratio­nal under­stand­ing of the con­nec­tion between his crime and the poten­tial pun­ish­ment. In 2008, Mr. Panetti was again assessed for com­pe­ten­cy and found fit to be exe­cut­ed. This deci­sion was affirmed in 2013 and Mr. Panetti’s exe­cu­tion was set for December 3, 2014. Just hours before the sched­uled exe­cu­tion, the Fifth Circuit Court issued a stay and lat­er ruled that Mr. Panetti’s attor­neys pre­sent­ed suf­fi­cient evi­dence to prove his ​“dete­ri­o­rat­ing” men­tal sta­bil­i­ty since the sec­ond com­pe­ten­cy hear­ing, enti­tling him to expert assis­tance and coun­sel, as well as a new hearing.

In October 2022, a third com­pe­ten­cy hear­ing for Mr. Panetti was held. After hear­ing argu­ments and evi­dence, Judge Pitman held that Mr. Panetti could not be exe­cut­ed. ​“There are sev­er­al rea­sons for pro­hibit­ing the exe­cu­tion of the insane, includ­ing the ques­tion­able ret­ribu­tive val­ue of exe­cut­ing an indi­vid­ual so wracked by men­tal ill­ness that he can­not com­pre­hend the ​‘mean­ing and pur­pose of the pun­ish­ment,’ as well as society’s intu­ition that such an exe­cu­tion ​‘sim­ply offends human­i­ty.’ Scott Panetti is one of these indi­vid­u­als.” Mr. Panetti’s attor­ney, Gregory Wiercoch issued a state­ment say­ing that Judge Pitman’s deci­sion ​“pre­vents the State of Texas from exact­ing vengeance on a per­son who suf­fers from a per­va­sive, severe form of schiz­o­phre­nia that caus­es him to inac­cu­rate­ly per­ceive the world around him.”