Entries tagged with “Andre Thomas”
What to Know Series
,Mar 23, 2026
What to Know: Mentally Ill Prisoners and the Death Penalty
DPI’s “What to Know” series examines capital punishment from multiple angles, one topic at a time. Each installment provides essential facts and data on specific aspects of the death penalty. Why it matters: While the U.S. Supreme Court has barred the execution of individuals with intellectual disabilities, no such categorical ban exists for those with severe mental illness (SMI). Consequently, people suffering from active psychosis, delusions, or severe neurobiological impairments remain…
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 Thomas was scheduled to be executed in April 2023; however, his execution date was withdrawn in March 2023, citing concerns with his severe mental illness (SMI) and competency to face execution.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…
Issues
Apr 10, 2023
Editorial: Texas Should Bar the Death Penalty for Severely Mentally Ill Defendants
An editorial in the Dallas Morning News urges the Texas legislature to pass a bill to ban the death penalty for people with severe mental illness, stating, it “seems like an obvious decision in a decent society.” House Bill 727, sponsored by Rep. Toni Rose (D‑Dallas), passed the Texas House on April 5, 2023, by a vote of 97 – 48 and is pending before the Texas Senate. “While the Supreme Court has banned the death penalty for juvenile offenders and people with intellectual disabilities, Texans…
Issues
New Voices
,Mar 17, 2023
MENTAL ILLNESS: Sally Satel op-ed: “The Flawed Case for Executing the Mentally Ill”
In an op-ed for the National Review, psychiatrist Sally Satel writes, “No civilized or lawful purpose is served by executing the severely mentally ill.” Satel is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and she highlights the deficits in the current legal system that permit capital sentences and executions for those suffering from severe mental illness. “The requirements to qualify for the insanity defense set the bar so high that few mentally ill defendants can meet it,” she…
Research
Mar 13, 2023
LEGISLATION: High Profile Cases in Texas Spur Legislative Activity on the Death Penalty
Prompted by the high-profile cases of Melissa Lucio, Andre Thomas, and John Ramirez, bills have been introduced in the Texas legislature to help prevent miscarriages of justice. Representative Joe Moody (pictured right) has authored two bills, one that would authorize Texas prosecutors to cancel scheduled executions, and another to facilitate the use of scientific evidence to lessen a person’s sentence. Lucio and Thomas both had execution dates, but were granted temporary reprieves. Lucio…
Issues
Mar 08, 2023
Texas Withdraws Execution Date to Allow for Mental Competency Consideration
A Grayson County, Texas court has withdrawn the April 5, 2023 execution date for Andre Thomas (pictured), a seriously mentally ill prisoner whose legal team requested more time to demonstrate that Thomas is incompetent to be executed. While incarcerated, Thomas gouged out his own eyes and claimed divine direction for his crimes. More than 100 religious leaders, along with other experts, had asked Gov. Greg Abbott to halt Thomas’ execution. “The Court was right to follow the Constitution by…
Issues
Feb 20, 2023
Upcoming Executions Raise Concerns about Mental Illness and the Death Penalty
The cases of two defendants facing imminent execution raise concerns about the appropriateness of death sentences for those with severe mental illness or sharply-limiting mental disabilities. Andre Thomas is scheduled for execution on April 5, 2023 in Texas, despite suffering from mental illness so acute that he cut out both of his eyes and ate one, claiming that it was necessary to prevent the government from hearing his thoughts. Donald Dillbeck is scheduled for execution in Florida on…
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
Oct 18, 2022
U.S. Supreme Court Declines to Hear Case of Texas Prisoner Whose Jurors Expressed Racist Views
With three justices dissenting, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case of Texas death-row prisoner Andre Thomas, who was sentenced to death by jurors who admitted to racial bias. In a case involving an interracial murder and marriage, jurors who opposed interracial relationships were allowed to serve without objection by defense counsel. These beliefs were referenced by the prosecution during closing argument at the sentencing phase, where jurors were tasked to weigh Thomas’ long…
Issues
Jan 06, 2022
Lawyer in Landmark Interracial Marriage Case Urges Supreme Court to Eliminate ‘Frightening Echo’ of Bigotry in Texas Death Penalty Case
On January 6, 1959, Richard and Mildred Loving were convicted on felony charges of “miscegenation” under Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act, which criminalized interracial marriage. The trial court sentenced them to one year in prison but suspended the sentence conditioned upon their leaving Virginia and not returning together for 25 years. The court wrote: “Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference…
Issues
Apr 26, 2021
Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of April 19, 2021
NEWS (4/21 – 4/23/21) — Texas: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has ruled against Texas death-row prisoners in three separate capital appeals. On April 23, a split panel of the court upheld a conviction and death sentence imposed by an all-White jury on Andre Thomas — a Black man — for killing his wife, who was White, and two children. Although three of the jurors who were empaneled expressed strong opposition to interracial marriage, Thomas’ defense counsel did not object to seating…
Issues
Feb 11, 2020
Texas Appeals Court Hears Argument that Incompetent Lawyering, Race Bias Infected Death Sentence of Man Who Gouged Out and Ate His Own Eye
Andre Thomas (pictured) is a Texas death-row prisoner riven with schizophrenia so severe that, in separate incidents, he gouged out both of his eyes and ate one of them. The U.S. Court of Appeals heard oral argument on February 5, 2020, about whether his conviction and death sentence should be overturned because his lawyers failed to present evidence that he was incompetent to be tried, failed to present mitigating evidence of Thomas’ extensive history of mental illness, and failed to object to…
Issues
Jun 06, 2018
Federal Appeals Court Hears Argument in Case of Texas Death-Row Prisoner Who Gouged Out His Eyes
A severely mentally ill Texas death-row prisoner who gouged out his eyes and ate one of them has asked a federal appeals court to allow him to appeal a lower court decision that upheld his conviction and death sentence and found that he had been competent to stand trial. 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); is seeking review of his claims that his conviction and…
Issues
Feb 19, 2013
MENTAL ILLNESS: Texas Inmate Gouges Out Eyes, Remains on Death Row
Texas death-row inmate Andre Thomas has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and auditory hallucinations drove him to gouge out both of his eyes. Nevertheless, prosecutors still believe he should be executed. In a revealing recent essay in Mother Jones magazine, author Marc Bookman described in vivid detail Thomas’s family history of mental illness, substance abuse, and domestic violence going back at least two generations. A brief excerpt from the article epitomized Thomas’s…