Justen Hall Executed in Second 2019 Texas Case to Raise Questions of Competency

Texas exe­cut­ed Justen Hall (pic­tured) on November 6, 2019 in the sec­ond Texas case of the year to present sig­nif­i­cant ques­tions as to a prisoner’s com­pe­ten­cy to be executed.

Hall, a men­tal­ly ill death-row pris­on­er who had giv­en up his appeals, had attempt­ed sui­cide and had told courts on mul­ti­ple occa­sions that he want­ed to be exe­cut­ed. His lawyers — with whom he had refused to speak since 2017 — said Hall exhib­it­ed symp­toms of seri­ous men­tal ill­ness, includ­ing hal­lu­ci­na­tions, para­noia, and depres­sion. On October 22, they filed a motion in El Paso County to request judi­cial review of Hall’s com­pe­ten­cy to be exe­cut­ed, but — rely­ing on Hall’s self-asser­tion that he was com­pe­tent — the tri­al court refused to hold a hear­ing on the issue. 

In October 2016, Hall wrote a let­ter to the coun­ty court, say­ing, ​“These walls 24/​7 have bro­ken me. It is tak­ing every last ounce of will to even make it from day to day.… I need to be put down like the rabid dog I am.” At that time, he asked the court to dis­miss his appeals and set an exe­cu­tion date. In 2017, Hall sought to fire his attor­neys, and they told the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that they would seek a com­pe­ten­cy hear­ing if he per­sist­ed in his request. Hall then gave up his efforts to fire the attorneys. 

According to prison records from that time, Hall attempt­ed sui­cide in November 2016. 

Hall’s lawyers had sought DNA test­ing of the mur­der weapon from his case, but Hall attempt­ed to waive the motions seek­ing that test­ing. In January 2019, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied the motion for test­ing, say­ing that an excul­pa­to­ry result would not have made a dif­fer­ence in the jury’s ver­dict. In the same deci­sion, the court said that Hall’s sui­cide attempt and state­ment that death row had ​“bro­ken” him did not indi­cate a lack of competency. 

“Being depressed by his cir­cum­stances is under­stand­able and is a ratio­nal response to adverse con­di­tions,” the court wrote. ​“In light of this tes­ti­mo­ny, Appellant’s ear­li­er state­ment about being ​‘bro­ken’ does not, even in com­bi­na­tion with his sui­cide attempt, indi­cate a lack of competency.” 

Hall’s lawyers argued that his med­ical records were replete with ​“numer­ous exam­ples of his psy­chi­atric con­di­tion dete­ri­o­rat­ing” over the course of the 14 years he was impris­oned on death row. Hall cut off com­mu­ni­ca­tion with his lawyers in 2017 and lat­er also cut off com­mu­ni­ca­tion with his fam­i­ly. During a recent attempt­ed vis­it by attor­ney Benjamin Wolff and Hall’s moth­er, Wolff said Hall ​“turned his back to me, and con­tin­ued stand­ing with his back to me (and the Visitors Area) for approx­i­mate­ly an hour before he was escort­ed back to his cell.” 

The case is the sec­ond in Texas in 2019 that raised ques­tions of a con­demned prisoner’s men­tal com­pe­ten­cy. A Henderson County court with­drew the death war­rant that had sched­uled Randall Mays’ exe­cu­tion for October 16, after his attor­neys raised a claim of incom­pe­tence based upon a new diag­no­sis by prison doc­tors that Mays has schiz­o­phre­nia. In with­draw­ing the war­rant, District Judge Joe Clayton cit­ed the need to ​“prop­er­ly review all med­ical records sub­mit­ted” in the case. Mays had pre­vi­ous­ly received a stay of exe­cu­tion in 2015 on a com­pe­ten­cy claim, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals lat­er found him com­pe­tent to be executed. 

Of the thir­teen peo­ple sched­uled for exe­cu­tion in Texas in the last five months of 2019, four (includ­ing Mays and Hall) showed signs of seri­ous men­tal ill­ness. Hall is one of at least 149 death-row pris­on­ers to attempt to with­draw their appeals to facil­i­tate their own exe­cu­tions. These so-called ​“vol­un­teers” account for ten per­cent of all pris­on­ers put to death in the United States since exe­cu­tions resumed in the 1970s.