Stay of execution for mentally ill
By Michael Graczyk in Texas
18may04

THE Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, in a highly
unusual action, has
recommended the governor should grant a reprieve to a
mentally ill
killer scheduled to die by lethal injection today.

The panel, in a 5-1 vote passed yesterday, recommended
the death
sentence of Kelsey Patterson be commuted to life.

Patterson was found guilty of a double slaying carried
out almost a
dozen years ago. He has repeatedly been diagnosed as a
paranoid
schizophrenic.

If the governor declined, the board recommended
Patterson should be
granted a 120-day reprieve.

A spokeswoman for the governor said the recommendation
was under review.

Patterson's lethal injection, set for tonight, has
renewed the legal
quandary of whether it's proper to execute someone who
is mentally ill
when the US Supreme Court has ruled it's
unconstitutional to execute
someone who is mentally retarded.

The executions of three Texas inmates have already
been halted this
year because the inmate was considered mentally
retarded.

Patterson, 50, was condemned for the shooting deaths
of Louis Oates,
63, who owned an oil company in the east Texas town of
Palestine, and
Oates' secretary, Dorthy Harris, 41.

Source: Herald Sun