Entries tagged with “Competency”
May 07, 2026
South Carolina Judge Rules Death-Sentenced Prisoner John Wood Not Competent for Execution
A South Carolina circuit court judge has found that death-sentenced prisoner John Wood cannot be executed because of his severe schizophrenia. The constitutional thresholds established by the U.S. Supreme Court in Ford v. Wainwright (1986) and clarified in Panetti v. Quarterman (2007) and Madison v. Alabama (2018) determine that a prisoner may not be executed if they are unable to rationally understand the reason they are being put to death. Judge Grace Knie issued a 12-page written decision on…
Mar 12, 2026
Texas Death Row Prisoner Andre Thomas Too Mentally Ill to Attend His Own Competency Hearing, Doctor Warns
A March 9, 2026, competency hearing for Andre Thomas, a death-sentenced prisoner in Texas, has been postponed to an unspecified date because of concerns that Mr. Thomas is too mentally ill to be transported to his competency hearing and he could not be re-examined by the State’s expert. Mr. Thomas was scheduled to be executed in April 2023; however, his execution date was withdrawn in March 2023, citing concerns with his severe mental illness (SMI) and competency to face execution. “In my…
Nov 25, 2025
New Evaluation Finds Utah Prisoner Ralph Menzies Incompetent for Execution, State Court to Hear More Evidence in December
Mr. Menzies lacks a rational understanding that he is to be executed for the crime of murder, as he does not understand the State’s rationale for levying his punishment in general or to him in particular.” — Dr. Michael Brooks, Utah Department of Health and Human Services In a new mental competency report prepared by the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, a state medical professional has found death-sentenced prisoner Ralph Menzies…
Jun 12, 2025
Counsel for Ralph Menzies Appeal Competency Ruling as State Moves to Set Execution Date
On June 6, 2025, District Judge Matthew Bates issued a ruling finding Utah death-sentenced prisoner Ralph Menzies mentally competent to be executed despite concerns presented by Mr. Menzies’ attorneys about his vascular dementia. In his ruling, Judge Bates agreed that Mr. Menzies suffers from vascular dementia but said Mr. Menzies had failed to show “by a preponderance of the evidence that his mental condition prevents him from reaching a rational understanding of the punishment or the State’s…
Feb 14, 2024
Utah Court Rules Prisoner Suffering from Dementia Requires a Competency Assessment Following the State’s Request for Execution
On February 13, 2024, the 3rd District Court of Salt Lake City, Utah ruled that evidence presented by Ralph Menzies’ attorneys of his dementia and cognitive decline requires a formal assessment of his competency to face execution by firing squad. With its decision, the court also vacated a hearing scheduled for February 23, at which the state of Utah intended to request an execution warrant for Mr. Menzies. As explained in his request for a competency hearing, Mr. Menzies has been diagnosed…
Jan 29, 2024
Lawyers for 65-Year-Old Prisoner with Vascular Dementia Say He is Incompetent to be Executed Days After Utah Requests Execution Date and Use of Firing Squad
On January 23, 2024, attorneys for Utah death-sentenced prisoner Ralph Menzies, who has been diagnosed with a major neurocognitive disorder known as vascular dementia, filed a petition in state court alleging he is incompetent to be executed. Mr. Menzies, who uses a walker to navigate the prisons, has been on Utah’s death row for nearly 36 years. On January 17, 2024, Utah’s attorney general’s office filed a motion with courts to set an execution date for him and indicated it will use the firing…
Issues
Nov 29, 2022
Texas Schedules Execution of Mentally Ill Prisoner Who Ate His Eye, After SCOTUS Refuses to Review Evidence of Racial Bias
Texas is planning to execute a seriously mentally ill prisoner who has gouged out both of his eyes because of his paranoid schizophrenia. On November 7, 2022, the District Court of Grayson County, Texas set an April 5, 2023 execution date for Andre Thomas (pictured, left when arrested; center, after gouging out his right eye prior to trial; right, after gouging out and eating his left eye while on death row). Thomas has been described by his attorneys as “one of the most mentally ill prisoners…
Issues
Nov 17, 2022
Tennessee Attorney General’s Office Continues to Oppose Local Prosecutors Who Concede that Death-Row Prisoner Is Intellectually Disabled
The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office attempted to preserve a trial court ruling denying Byron Black’s intellectual disability claim, arguing before the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) on November 8. Black’s attorneys argue that a new law entitles him to relief from his death sentence because of his intellectual disability, and the Davidson County District Attorney’s Office agrees. However, a trial judge denied Black’s claim because it had been previously raised when Tennessee was…
Issues
Oct 05, 2022
With Execution Looming, Judge Denies Competency Hearing for Oklahoma Death-Row Prisoner Benjamin Cole
A Pittsburg County, Oklahoma judge has denied a competency hearing for death-row prisoner Benjamin Cole (pictured), clearing the path for his execution on October 20, 2022. In a three-page ruling issued on October 4, 2022, Judge Mike Hogan conclusorily asserted that Cole’s lawyers had not met the required “substantial threshold showing of insanity” to receive a jury trial on his competency to be executed. The ruling asserted that the expert reports submitted by the parties “are conflicting”…
Issues
Mar 15, 2022
Nashville DA Concedes Tennessee Death-Row Prisoner with August 2022 Death Warrant Is Intellectually Disabled and Ineligible for Execution
Davidson County District Attorney Glenn Funk is asking a Tennessee trial court to vacate the death sentence imposed on Byron Black (pictured), agreeing that the Nashville man, who is scheduled to be executed in August 2022, is intellectually disabled and therefore ineligible to be executed. In a pleading filed in the Davidson County Criminal Court on March 9, 2022, Funk wrote that two mental health experts historically relied upon by Tennessee prosecutors in death-penalty cases had concluded…
Issues
Sep 22, 2021
Pennsylvania Court Denies Post-Conviction Relief to Death-Row Prisoner Albert Reid, Remands on Competency Issue
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has, with one exception, affirmed a trial court ruling denying death-row prisoner Albert Reid’s post-conviction challenge to his conviction and death sentence. In a 5 – 2 decision issued on September 22, 2021, the court upheld the decision of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas that dismissed Reid’s post-conviction petition. The court remanded the case on the question of Reid’s competency to stand trial and assist in his defense, saying the trial court had not…
Issues
Jul 27, 2020
Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of July 20, 2020
NEWS (7/21 & 7/22/20) — Texas: Split panels of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit have upheld the convictions and death sentences imposed on Erica Sheppard (pictured) and Anibal Canales. The trial court had reversed Sheppard’s death sentence on grounds that her lawyer had provided ineffective assistance in the penalty phase of trial, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed, saying that counsel’s minimal presentation of mitigating evidence had not been prejudicial. The…
Issues
Federal Death Penalty
,Jul 16, 2020
U.S. Government Hurriedly Executes Wesley Purkey After Overnight Rulings by U.S. Supreme Court Vacate Two Injunctions and a Stay of Execution
For the second time in three days, the United States government has executed a prisoner after a 5 – 4 overnight decision of the U.S. Supreme Court short-circuited judicial review of significant legal claims and after the original death warrant setting his execution date had expired. Wesley Ira Purkey was executed at the United States Penitentiary Terre Haute and pronounced dead at 8:19 a.m. on July 16, 2020, more than 15 hours after the time the Federal Bureau of Prisons had set for a scheduled…
Issues
Religion
,Federal Death Penalty
,Jul 15, 2020
Wesley Purkey Execution Temporarily Halted as Challenges Pending on Mental Competency, Health Danger to Religious Advisor, and Ineffective Representation
Lawyers for Wesley Purkey (pictured), the second of three federal death-row prisoners scheduled to be executed during the week of July 13, are seeking to halt his execution, arguing that mental illness and dementia have left him mentally incompetent. As Purkey challenges the constitutionality of his execution, his spiritual advisor, Rev. Dale Hartkemeyer, is seeking to move back the execution until the COVID-19 pandemic subsides. Hartkemeyer’s lawsuit asserts that conducting the execution…
Issues
Federal Death Penalty
,May 18, 2020
Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of May 18, 2020
NEWS (5/22/2020) — Washington, D.C.: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has stayed the issuance of its mandate in the federal execution-protocol lawsuit until June 8, 2020, to allow the federal death-row prisoners to seek review in the U.S. Supreme Court. On November 21, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a preliminary injunction barring the federal government from implementing the challenged protocol. A split panel of the appeals court…
Issues
Upcoming Executions
,May 07, 2020
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…
Issues
Feb 25, 2020
Vernon Madison, Whose Case Challenged Execution of Prisoners with Dementia, Dies on Alabama’s Death Row
Vernon Madison, an Alabama death-row prisoner whose severe dementia led to a major Supreme Court decision on competency to be executed, has died in prison at the age of 69. Madison’s case twice reached the U.S. Supreme Court on questions of the limits of federal court review of death-penalty cases and whether Alabama was entitled to execute an aging, infirm prisoner whose cognitive abilities were severely compromised. Madison’s attorneys argued that a series of strokes had left him without a…
Issues
Executions Overview
,Mar 01, 2019
Supreme Court Decides that Executing a Person With Dementia Could Be Unconstitutional
The United States Supreme Court has reversed a decision of the Alabama state courts that would have permitted the execution of Vernon Madison (pictured), a death-row prisoner whose severe dementia has left him with no memory of the crime for which he was sentenced to death and compromised his understanding of why he was to be executed. The Alabama courts had narrowly construed the Supreme Court’s past rulings that prohibited the execution of prisoners who had become mentally incompetent…
Issues
Mar 16, 2017
Federal Appeals Court Finds Alabama Prisoner Incompetent To Be Executed
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled on March 15 that Alabama death-row prisoner Vernon Madison (pictured) — who was spared execution last May when the U.S. Supreme Court deadlocked at 4 – 4 on whether to lift a stay — is not mentally competent to be executed. The appeals court overturned an Alabama state court ruling, saying that the state court had unreasonably determined the facts when it concluded that Madison was aware of the reasons for his impending execution. “The only…
Issues
Executions Overview
,May 11, 2016
Alabama Prepares to Execute 65-Year-Old Mentally Ill Prisoner Disabled by Several Strokes
UPDATE: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit stayed Madison’s execution, ordering oral argument on his competency claim. Previously: Alabama is preparing to execute Vernon Madison (pictured) on May 12, as his lawyers continue to press their claim that the 65-year-old prisoner is incompetent to be executed. Defense lawyers say Madison, whom a trial judge sentenced to death despite the jury’s recommendation of a life sentence, suffers from mental illness and has additional…
Issues
Mar 26, 2015
States Struggle with Determinations of Competency to Be Executed
A recent article in Mother Jones examines lingering questions in the determination of which inmates are exempt from execution because of mental incompetency. In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Ford v. Wainwright that a person could not be executed if he or she was “unaware of the punishment they’re about to suffer and why they are to suffer it.” The 2007 ruling in Panetti v. Quarterman updated that decision, with Justice Anthony Kennedy writing, “A prisoner’s awareness of the State’s…
Issues
Mar 11, 2015
UPCOMING EXECUTIONS: Elderly Man With Low IQ and Brain Damage Facing Imminent Execution
UPDATE: An image of Cecil Clayton’s brain obtained via MRI can be viewed here. The image shows the front left part of his brain is physically missing. Cecil Clayton is 74, suffers from dementia, has an IQ of 71, is missing a significant part of his brain due to an accident, and is scheduled for execution on March 17 in Missouri. His attorneys insist he should be spared because he does not understand the punishment to be carried out. Clayton sustained a brain injury in a sawmill accident in…