In this edition: Scheduled executions: Have you signed the petition in support of clemency for Quintin Jones? Case updates: Courts recommend new trials for two individuals and overturn death sentences in two other Texas capital cases, including for the longest-serving individual on death row In case you missed it: Texas Department of Criminal Justice will allow clergy in […]
Category: severe mental illness
This edition of our monthly newsletter includes case updates on Ramiro Ibarra, Raymond Riles, and James Broadnax as well as an update on death row exonerations as detailed in a new report from the Death Penalty Information Center. We also hail the Commonwealth of Virginia for becoming the first Southern state to abolish the death penalty.
In this edition of our monthly newsletter, you’ll find information on legislative developments around the country, case updates related to intellectual disability and junk science, and guidance on how you can take action to stop the scheduled execution of Edward Busby. You’ll also find announcements related to our next webinar and book group meeting and the TCADP 2021 Annual Conference later this month.
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 […]
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.
This week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit will consider the case of Scott Panetti, who faced execution last year by the State of Texas despite his long, documented history of severe mental illness. Panetti holds a fixed delusional belief that the State seeks to execute him to prevent him from preaching the gospel.
Last night, the State of Texas carried out its seventh execution of the year, putting Derrick Charles to death for the murders of his 15-year-old girlfriend, Myiesha Bennett, her mother Brenda Bennett, and her grandfather, Obie Lee Bennett in 2002 in Harris County. Charles was 19 years old at the time. According to his attorneys […]