On October 23, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a last-minute fed­er­al appeals court stay-of-exe­cu­tion for John Ferguson. Ferguson had been sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed ear­li­er that day, but his lawyers filed a series of motions argu­ing he was men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent. In September, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed Ferguson’s death war­rant for October 16, but allowed time for a men­tal com­pe­ten­cy exam­i­na­tion. A series of stays and rever­sals shift­ed the date to October 18, then to October 23, or lat­er. Mental health pro­fes­sion­als have diag­nosed Ferguson as para­noid schiz­o­phrenic with a long his­to­ry of men­tal ill­ness. Earlier, the ABA released a state­ment: ​“The American Bar Association is alarmed that Florida is poised to exe­cute John Ferguson, a man diag­nosed as severe­ly men­tal­ly ill for more than 40 years, before the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of his exe­cu­tion is ful­ly eval­u­at­ed.” The Court of Appeals will review whether the Florida Supreme made an unrea­son­able appli­ca­tion of the law or deter­mi­na­tion of the facts in deny­ing Ferguson’s state appeal. Briefs must be filed by November 6. The U.S. Supreme Court had repeat­ed­ly denied pri­or requests for a stay.

Christopher Handman, Ferguson’s lawyer, said, ​“It is impos­si­ble to fath­om that the state can con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly put to death a man who thinks he is the ​‘Prince of God’ and who believes he has a des­tiny of being the right hand of God and return­ing to puri­fy earth after the state tries to kill him.”

(M. Peltier, ​“Supreme Court upholds stay of exe­cu­tion for Florida man,” Chicago Tribune, October 24, 2012). See Mental Illness. Listen to DPIC’s pod­cast on Mental Illness.

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