Oklahoma Judge Finds Wade Lay Mentally Incompetent to Be Executed

Oklahoma pris­on­er Wade Lay (pic­tured) will not be exe­cut­ed on June 6, 2024 as sched­uled because a Pittsburg County judge has found him men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent to be exe­cut­ed. ​“The avail­able evi­dence demon­strates, by a pre­pon­der­ance or greater weight of the evi­dence, that Mr. Lay is cur­rent­ly incom­pe­tent to be exe­cut­ed accord­ing to the gov­ern­ing legal stan­dards,” Judge Tim Mills wrote. Defense and state experts who exam­ined Mr. Lay found that, due to his schiz­o­phre­nia, delu­sions, and para­noia, he lacks a ratio­nal under­stand­ing of the rea­son for his exe­cu­tion, and the state con­cedes that he is incompetent. 

Callie Heller, one of Mr. Lay’s attor­neys, said in a state­ment, ​“We are relieved that the dis­trict court and the State rec­og­nize that Wade Lay’s delu­sions pre­vent him from hav­ing any ratio­nal under­stand­ing of the rea­son for his exe­cu­tion, and car­ry­ing out that exe­cu­tion would vio­late the Constitution.” She explained, ​“Wade firm­ly believes that his exe­cu­tion is part of a wide-rang­ing gov­ern­ment con­spir­a­cy aimed at silenc­ing him.” State law requires that Mr. Lay be assessed peri­od­i­cal­ly for com­pe­ten­cy, but his attor­neys say that he is unlike­ly to be ren­dered com­pe­tent. Ms. Heller said, ​“giv­en the dura­tion and sever­i­ty of Mr. Lay’s men­tal ill­ness and his dete­ri­o­ra­tion in recent years, he is unlike­ly to become com­pe­tent in the future.” 

Although Mr. Lay had severe men­tal ill­ness at the time of the crime, he was allowed to rep­re­sent him­self at tri­al. The tri­al judge did not order a men­tal health eval­u­a­tion and did not appoint stand­by coun­sel to assist him with the com­plex­i­ties of a cap­i­tal tri­al. Mr. Lay’s 19-year-old son, who was con­vict­ed for his role in the same crime, was sen­tenced to life without parole.