On April 11, Texas Judge Wayne Salvant ruled that death row inmate Steven Kenneth Staley could be physically forced to take anti-psychotic medication that could render him competent enough to be executed. The decision came nearly two months after the judge stopped Staley’s scheduled execution following testimony from two doctors who stated that Staley suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and is too mentally ill to be executed. The law requires that Staley be mentally competent before he is executed. Since Staley was placed on death row in 1991, he has been hospitalized nearly 20 times because he is psychotic. He has a long history of mental illness.

Staley’s defense attorney, Jack Strickland, noted that forcibly medicating his client to execute him is unconstitutional and voilates his right to privacy. In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it was cruel and unusual punishment for states to execute a person who is incapable of understanding what is happening to him or why. In 1990, the Court ruled that states can forcibly medicate inmates in certain cases, if the treatment is essential for the defendant’s safety or the safety of others. The Justices have not ruled on the constitutionality of forcibly medicating someone on death row to make him competent to be executed.

“Putting doctors in the position… to give (inmates) treatment for the sole purpose of executing them should not be permitted. Once someone has been found to be incompetent to be executed, that should (change his sentence),” noted attorney Ronald Tabak, who chaired an American Bar Association task force on mental illness and the death penalty. Judge Salvant’s ruling stays Staley’s execution until May 5 to give his defense attorneys time to appeal the decision. (Fort Worth Star-Telegram, April 11, 2006 and Denver Post, April 13, 2006). See Mental Illness.