Arthur Baird, who was to be exe­cut­ed on August 31 for mur­der­ing his par­ents in Indiana, received a com­mu­ta­tion to a life sen­tence from Governor Mitch Daniels. (WishTV​.com, Ch.8, Indianapolis, Aug. 29, 2005). Two mem­bers of the Indiana Supreme Court had writ­ten that Baird was ​“only mar­gin­al­ly in touch with real­i­ty,” in a deci­sion in which the major­i­ty had allowed the exe­cu­tion to go for­ward. A report to the court from Dr. Philip M. Coons, a pro­fes­sor emer­i­tus of psy­chi­a­try at the Indiana University School of Medicine, found Baird to be ​“gross­ly psy­chot­ic and delu­sion­al” and men­tal­ly unfit to be exe­cut­ed. Indiana’s parole board had rec­om­mend­ed against a commutation. 

(Indianapolis Star, August 26, 2005).
See Clemency and Mental Illness.

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