News Brief — Texas Appeals Court Stays Randall Mays’ Execution on Issue of Intellectual Disability

NEWS (5/7/20) — Texas: The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has granted a stay of execution to Randall Mays, directing a Henderson County trial court to review Mays’ claim that he is ineligible for the death penalty because of intellectual disability. The appeals court declined to address claims that Mays’ conviction and death sentence had been tainted by racial bias and juror misconduct and that he had been subject to improper interrogation by law enforcement.

On October 3, 2019, the trial court withdrew a previous death warrant amid questions of Mays’ competency to be executed. Prison mental health personnel had recently diagnosed Mays with schizophrenia and prescribed him anti-psychotic medication. A forensic psychiatrist reported that Mays’ mental health condition had deteriorated, that he had become increasingly delusional and incoherent, and that he was claiming that prison guards were poisoning the air vents in his cell. Mays’ competency issue is still pending before the Court of Criminal Appeals.