Two Texas executions scheduled to take place over the next two weeks have been halted. On Friday, October 4, 2019, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) granted a motion for a stay of execution filed by attorneys for Randy Halprin, who had been scheduled for execution on October 10, 2019. Also last week, a trial court withdrew the execution date of Randall Mays to examine his claim of mental incompetence.
Category: incompetency
Today, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed the execution of Kwame Rockwell, finding that a Texas trial court was in error in ruling that Mr. Rockwell failed to meet the threshold showing required for funds for a mental health expert. Rockwell was scheduled to be put to death next Wednesday, October 24, 2018. Following […]
Kwame Rockwell is scheduled to be executed by the State of Texas on Wednesday, October 24, despite his lifelong history of severe mental illness that predates the crime, fixed delusions that snakes and demons surround him and invade his body, and the fact that the state’s own doctors have sent him to the psychiatric unit […]
On Tuesday, July 11, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit returned Scott Panetti’s case to the federal district court with orders to appoint counsel, authorize funds for investigative and expert assistance, and allow adequate time to prepare a habeas corpus petition raising the claim that Mr. Panetti is currently incompetent to […]
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has issued a stay of execution for John Battaglia, who was scheduled to be put to death next week on December 7. The court is reviewing a recent decision by a state district judge deeming Battaglia mentally competent to be executed. No more executions are scheduled to take place in 2016; Texas will end the year with the fewest executions in two decades.
In this edition of our monthly alert, you’ll find information about the last execution scheduled to take place in Texas this year, as well as announcements related to the TCADP 2017 Annual Conference and coverage of a recent U.S. Supreme Court hearing about intellectual disabilities in a Texas death penalty case.
Important decisions in two North Texas death penalty-related cases were announced last Friday: A State District Judge in Dallas determined that John Battaglia is mentally competent to be executed, while a Tarrant County jury imposed a new death sentence for the first time in more than two years.
A Brazos County judge recently deemed that Marcus Druery is incompetent to be executed due to evidence of his severe mental illness, which prevents him from understanding why he is being punished. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted Druery a stay just days before his scheduled execution on August 1, 2012 and later ordered a competency hearing.