Perry lets mentally ill man be executed Parole board's rare clemency vote overridden By MIKE TOLSON Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle AP Kelsey Patterson, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia in early adulthood, is scheduled for execution this evening. HUNTSVILLE -- Despite a long record of severe mental illness before and since his crime, convicted killer Kelsey Patterson was put to death by injection Tuesday night shortly after Gov. Rick Perry refused to go along with a recommendation by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles that his sentence be commuted to life imprisonment. Perry said it was a difficult decision given Patterson's mental history, but he noted that numerous courts have reviewed the case and not found a legal reason to bar his execution. He made no mention of the rare recommendation by the board or why he chose to disagree with it. "This defendant is a very violent individual," Perry said in a prepared statement. "Texas has no life without parole sentencing option, and no one can guarantee this defendant would never be freed to commit other crimes were his sentence commuted. In the interest of justice and public safety, I am denying the defendant's request for clemency and a stay." Patterson's attorney, Gary Hart, was crestfallen by Perry's rejection of the parole board, which on Monday voted 5-1 in Patterson's favor. "They gave lip service to it being a hard case," Hart said after the governor's office called him and read Perry's statement. "But the ultimate justification was of a mad dog that had to be shot. That's the image I got after hearing their statement." Hart praised the parole board for considering the "totality of the picture" involving Patterson's history with the state's mental health system, which seldom kept him hospitalized for more than several months at a time, and he criticized Perry for "sweeping aside" its judgment. "How can you end your statement by emphasizing his violence and not mentioning his mental illness?" Hart said. "I guess it means that in Texas you better not be dangerous, because nothing else matters." Relatives and friends of Louis Oates and Dorthy Harris, the businessman and secretary whom Patterson killed in 1992, called Perry's decision courageous. "I want to personally thank all the courts involved and everyone who upheld the verdict," said Michele Smith, Harris' daughter, shortly after witnessing the execution. "And I want to thank the governor for giving me a chance to start again and have an end to such a horrible time in my life. I started the day very pessimistic, but it ended like I prayed it would." Genevieve Tarlton Hearon, executive director of the Austin-based Capacity for Justice, said her group and 32 other mental health advocacy organizations wrote Perry on Tuesday encouraging him to provide clemency. "I'm sorry for Texas," she said after the denial. "It's an embarrassment." The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled the execution of mentally r****ded inmates unconstitutional, but it has not extended that to the mentally ill. The high court denied a final appeal for Patterson on Tuesday afternoon. Patterson, 50, provided no resistance when brought to the death chamber. He was mumbling incoherently when the witnesses were brought to the viewing rooms. "Murderer ... no kin, no kin," he said quietly to no one in particular. "I'm not guilty of the charge of capital murder ... acquitted by the Court of Criminal Appeals." Asked by Warden Joe Fernald if he had a final statement, Patterson said, "Statement to what? Statement to what?" For two rambling minutes, Patterson touched on themes that have been part of his delusional system for the past dozen years. "I'm not guilty of the charge of capital murder," he repeated. "They're doing this to steal my money. My truth will always be my truth. No kin to you ... undertaker ... murderer. Go to hell. Get my money. Give me my rights. Give me my rights. Give me my life back." His mumbling was stopped by the flow of lethal chemicals. He was pronounced dead at 6:20 p.m., the ninth inmate executed in Texas this year. Patterson was convicted of capital murder in his hometown of Palestine for killing Oates and Harris without warning or apparent motive. His family had tried to have him committed to a mental facility shortly before the crime but was rebuffed by authorities because he had not harmed or threatened anyone. Patterson's appeals had focused on his mental condition. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia after he shot a co-worker in Dallas in 1980, and he spent much of that decade in and out of state mental hospitals. He was not prosecuted for the first assault or two others that followed because it was determined he was delusional at the time of the incidents. Hart argued that Patterson's sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment because his mental illness made him less culpable for his criminal acts. In his letter to Perry requesting a reprieve, Hart contended that Patterson has remained delusional during his time on death row and was not competent for execution. State law requires only that a condemned prisoner understand that his execution is imminent and the reason underlying it. At a March court hearing in state court, Patterson acknowledged the judge's statements regarding the pending execution but continued to insist -- as he had for years -- that he would not be executed because he had received "amnesty rights based on innocence" from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/2577911 --------------- The world is now a better place.....
Why is there no life without parole option in Texas. Is it just to force juries to choose capital punishment?
I don't care if he's schizo. Do the crime, do the time or this case, get an injection of Dr. Kevorkian's love potion # 9.
Though i'm very much against capital punishment, i've never been totally convinced mental illness should necessarily be an exclusion if you would otherwise agree with the death penalty. When a person who has committed a particularly vile act pleads insanity...i generally think: Well no sh**, Sherlock. Sane people don't do those things. Some of those crazy people have been appropriately labeled, and therefore fit our predefined categories of insanity...others we simply deem 'bad.' Just my random thoughts...not directly related to this incident. State of mind should definitely be a factor...but not necessarily the be all and end all.
It's interesting to me that the Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended commuting his sentence to life. That group doesn't exactly have a history of recommending clemency or any kind.
It has always been my understanding that a Governor of Texas can not pardon an execution...just give a 30 day reprieve.
OH...never mind...the only thing he could have done was given him life based on the Parole board...but since he could then be paroled later, we'd have the chance or releasing a danger to society on to the streets. Tough decision...probably would have made the same.
The Chronicle made a good observation today that Perry justified his refusal to change this guy's sentence to life on the grounds that he could later be paroled. However, Perry is making no attempt (via the bully pulpit - I am aware how weak the Texas Governor is) to change Texas law in order to make life without parole an option. This is a tough case, but it shouldn't have been if our state government did their job properly. When dealing with something as serious as capital punishment, it should not be an "either-or" situation (either die or get out eventually). We (all Texans) end up looking bloodthirsty. I urge everyone here to write to your state representatives and ask them to make life without parole an option.
I like the idea of life without parole, but couldn't that money be better used elsewhere rather then on murderers?
The claim is that it costs more to execute someone than to imprison them for life. It's my understanding that most other states have a life without parole option. I don't know of any talk in those states about the life without parole causing prison costs to be higher than in those few states without the option.
The mentally ill are protected ... They can be found innocent due to mental illness and that did not occur in this case thus there was mens rea in this case. I don't think he should have gotten any special treatment over anyone else on death row. I support the death penalty, but with that said I also support adding a life without parole option.
Did you actually read the article (including the response from the victims family members) or did you just react to the thread title?
Try to think of it this way. It's not the (sick) murderer you are paying for. You are paying for a civilized culture.
I agree -- life without parole should *definitely* be an option. A man shouldn't be killed because of a technicality. Instead of fighting to save a man's life because there was no other option, Perry fought to take a man's life because there was no other option. Maybe he would have been paroled in 50 years. But that's not Perry's decision to make. That's the parole board's.
I'm pretty sure that studies also show that those states that have life without parole as an option rather than death have lower crime rates.
[derail] Mr. M have you checked out all things STYX of late. I'm getting sad that I have the last word in every thread[/derail]
