Federal court halts scheduled execution for Texas prisoner Scott Panetti

A federal appeals court has halted the scheduled execution of a Texas prisoner sentenced to death for fatally shooting his estranged wife's parents 22 years ago. His attorneys say he is too delusional to be put to death, as the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that condemned inmates must be able to understand the reasons for their punishment.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a reprieve late Wednesday morning, less than eight hours before condemned killer Scott Panetti was set to receive a lethal injection.

In a two-sentence ruling, the appeals court said it needed time to "fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issues in this matter," and said a hearing would later be scheduled.

Panetti's lawyers have argued that he is too mentally ill to qualify for capital punishment, and they sought a delay for new competency tests. His attorneys also had appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court, which has said mentally ill people cannot be executed if they do not have a factual and rational understanding of why they are being punished.

On Wednesday the lawyers released a statement that read, "We are grateful that the court stayed tonight’s scheduled execution of Scott Panetti, a man who has suffered from schizophrenia for three decades, for a careful review of the issues surrounding his competency." 

A day earlier, human rights officials from the United Nations criticized the scheduled execution.

“There is no doubt that it is inherently cruel and unworthy of civilized societies to execute persons with mental disabilities,” Juan E. Méndez, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, said in a news release.

Panetti, 56, was convicted and sentenced in 1995, three years after he shot and killed his estranged wife's parents at their home in the Texas Hill Country.

At his trial he acted as his own attorney, dressed in a purple cowboy outfit. He attempted to subpoena more than 200 witnesses, including the pope and Jesus Christ, and took on an alternate personality, "Sarge," to testify.

In 1986 the Supreme Court ruled states may not execute killers whose insanity means they can't understand why they are being put to death. In 2002 the justices prohibited the execution of the mentally impaired. Five years later, ruling on an appeal from Panetti, the court said mentally ill condemned prisoners could be put to death if they have a factual and rational understanding of why they are being punished.

Panetti has insisted Satan is working through Texas prison officials to execute him, to keep him from preaching the Gospel.

Stewart-Klein said that defense claims of his mental condition were exaggerated and that previous tests had indicated some of his behavior could be contrived.

Panetti, a native of Hayward, Wisconsin, was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1978 and had been hospitalized more than a dozen times for treatment in the decade before fatally shooting Joe and Amanda Alvarado. Their daughter, who was married to Panetti, and her 3-year-old daughter had moved in with them and she had obtained a court order to keep Panetti away.

Enraged, he armed himself with a rifle, a sawed-off shotgun and knives, dressed in camouflage clothing and broke into the home in Fredericksburg, about 60 miles north of San Antonio. Both victims were shot a close range.

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press