Though the Supreme Court ruled last year that the mentally retarded cannot be executed, the decision did not affect the status of mentally ill killers.
Texas Dept of Criminal Justice
Posted on 01/25/2003 2:53:07 PM PST by MeekOneGOP
Supreme Court to allow execution of mentally ill inmate
01/25/2003
The Associated Press
CONROE, Texas — The U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the way for a new execution date to be set for a convicted killer granted a last-minute stay in late 2002 because he is mentally ill.
The high court quietly lifted its Nov. 6 stay last Tuesday for James Colburn, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic who has spent time in a prison psychiatric ward several times.
The former carpenter and bricklayer confessed to police and, last year, to reporters that he choked and stabbed 55-year-old Peggy Louise Murphy to death on June 26, 1994.
Colburn lured the woman, a hitchhiker, inside his apartment with an offer of water. When she told him she'd give him some food stamps in exchange for a beer, he got some from a neighbor, then attacked her in a bedroom. He then told a neighbor about the killing, saying he wanted to return to prison, according to case files.
Colburn, 42, said last year he worried he would commit another crime if he ever was released from prison.
"I couldn't convince myself another crime wouldn't happen, like a kidnap or a slight murder — not a serial murderer with 45 or 49 people dead," the ninth-grade dropout said. "The Lord knows now I'm willing to lay down my life and end all of this."
The court removed Colburn's stay on procedural grounds, not because of his mental condition. It said Colburn's incompetency claim was not raised in his first federal habeas corpus petition in 1999.
In that appeal, the lawyers said Colburn was too medicated during the trial to aid in his defense. Advocates for the mentally ill, who had hoped the high court would take action on the issue through Colburn's case, say the inmate only is kept marginally sane now because of heavy medication.
Colburn's lawyers began questioning his mental competency in petitions filed last year after prison officials said in a competency hearing that Colburn was mentally ill but able to understand his punishment.
Though the Supreme Court ruled last year that the mentally retarded cannot be executed, the decision did not affect the status of mentally ill killers.
(ap.state.online.tx 0847 01/25/2003 14:11:20 )
Though the Supreme Court ruled last year that the mentally retarded cannot be executed, the decision did not affect the status of mentally ill killers.
Texas Dept of Criminal Justice
Exactly how does the Supreme Court "quietly" lift a stay? Does it sometimes noisily lift one??
I'm not saying this guy doesn't deserve the death penalty, but this is really sad. Years ago in California, there was a paranoid schizophrenic (who had already killed someone) who begged not to be released from the prison ward of the mental hospital because he said he knew he would not be able to stop himself from killing again.
Sure enough, shortly after his release, he killed several people, one of them his grandmother, whom he beheaded.
Why can't they keep the mentally ill locked up? Especially when even the mentally ill themselves beg for it?
They are really off to a fast start this year, huh?
Head 'em up!, move 'em out!...Rawhide!
| Execution halted; lawyer says FW man is retarded |
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| Posted by MeeknMing On 01/22/2003 4:23 AM CST The Dallas Morning News ^ | January 22, 2003 | By JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News Execution halted; lawyer says FW man is retarded County court to determine killer's mental capacity 01/22/2003 By JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday stayed the execution of a 41-year-old Fort Worth murderer after his attorney argued that the man is retarded. Elkie Lee Taylor, 41, a former laborer, had been scheduled to die Thursday for using a coat hanger to strangle retiree Otis Flake, 64, to death in 1993 in Fort Worth. Mr. Taylor and an accomplice robbed the man's home of a television, pots, pans, dishes and other items.... |
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This kind of thing irks me. We hear all the time about evil crooks getting let out on technicalities and everyone gnashes their teeth at it. But when it runs the other way, utter silence. Why can't truth, rather than byzantine rules which are written as though they were for a game of Monopoly (oops you didn't ask to buy that hotel soon enough), be the determining factor in what a court will honor?
Here's the link of my post if you want to see the full story here on an FR thread...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/828483/posts?page=78#78
That link should take you directly to the post, #78...
That just AP's way of suggesting stealth, as though the SC feels guilty about lifting the stay and doesn't want to attract a torch-bearing mob of incensed citizens demanding this killer's release. Just more wire service "stealth" editorializing.
Do you think it would be a nosiy release if he had been a member, of that, er, ah, well you know, that "thing" of peace?
Or maybe a hand-off to God just before He slam-dunks him into the dark empire.
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