With only a few hours to go I can only hold my breath and hope that Gov Perry does what the board recomends and gives Kelsey a Stay.

softie




May 18, 2004

Governor considers recommendation to stop Tuesday execution

By MICHAEL GRACZYK, Associated Press

Gov. Rick Perry is considering whether to stop the execution of a mentally
ill killer set for Tuesday evening after the Texas Board of Pardons and
Paroles recommended he either commute the sentence to life or grant a
120-day reprieve.

Kelsey Patterson, 50, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, was condemned
for a double slaying in Palestine in East Texas almost a dozen years ago.

"Just to kill another human being out of rage or a sense of moral
retribution for conduct he committed when deluded from a painful and
debilitating mental disease is simply unworthy of a decent society,"
Patterson's lawyer, J. Gary Hart, said in his petition to the parole
board.

Late Monday, in a 5-1 vote, the panel made its recommendation, marking the
first time at this late stage in a condemned inmate's case the board
recommended a commutation to the governor.

"It's the first one in that posture," Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt said.
She said the recommendation was being reviewed by the governor's legal
advisers.

There was no timetable for a decision although the execution was scheduled
for after 6 p.m. CDT.

Hart called the recommendation encouraging. But he said he would continue
to appeal to the courts to halt the punishment, which would be the ninth
execution in Texas this year.

"I can't quit what I'm doing in terms of the legal maneuvering because I
don't know what Gov. Perry will do," he said. "I can't just assume that
he'll follow the recommendation.

"If he commutes the sentence to life, I'm not making my arguments any more
because my whole argument is you can't execute (Patterson)."

Patterson's lawyers and death penalty opponents contended he was mentally
ill, repeatedly had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and should
be spared.

State attorneys argued he understood why he was on death row and knew he
was facing execution for his crime.

"That satisfies the requirements of the Supreme Court and also Texas law,"
said Doug Lowe, the district attorney in Anderson County, where Patterson
on Sept. 25, 1992, fatally shot Dorthy Harris, 41, a secretary at an oil
company office in Palestine, and her boss, Louis Oates, 63.

Patterson's case renewed the legal quandary of whether it's proper to
execute someone who is mentally ill when the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled
it's unconstitutional to execute someone who is mentally retarded.

"The frustration ... has been really tough on me mentally," said Michele
Smith, Harris' daughter. "The need to have what people call 'closure'
seems to always be just out of my reach."

No one, including Patterson, disputed that he killed two people.

Evidence showed he left his home in Palestine, about 100 miles southeast
of Dallas, and walked about a block to where Oates was standing on a
loading dock at his business. Patterson walked up behind him, shot him in
the head with a .38-caliber pistol and started walking away. When Harris
saw the scene and began screaming, Patterson grabbed her and shot her in
the head.

Then he went home, took off his clothes and was arrested walking on the
street in front of his home.

Throughout his trial, outbursts earned him repeated expulsions from the
courtroom. He frequently talked about "remote control devices" and
"implants" that controlled him.

In 1980 in Dallas and in 1983 in Palestine, Patterson was ruled mentally
incompetent to stand trial on charges related to nonfatal shootings.

While on death row and as his execution date neared, he refused to consult
with his lawyer and has written jabbering letters to the courts.

So far this year, the executions of three Texas inmates have been halted
because the inmate was considered mentally retarded. Also, the state's
highest criminal court last month for the first time commuted a death
sentence because the convict was deemed retarded.

In March, Perry commuted the death sentence of Robert Smith, convicted of
a 1990 Harris County slaying. Smith's lawyers contended their client was
mentally retarded and ineligible for execution. The commutation in a death
penalty case was the first for Perry since he took office in 2000. In that
time, 82 inmates were executed. Smith, however, was not within hours of a
scheduled execution and Harris County prosecutors agreed with the
recommendation.

Another inmate, Joe Lee Guy, is awaiting a decision from Perry after the
board recommended his sentence be commuted to life. Guy was the lookout in
a Plainview case where two gunmen received life prison terms.

In 1998, four days before former self-confessed serial killer Henry Lee
Lucas was to die, then-Gov. George W. Bush commuted Lucas' death sentence
after questions were raised about the conviction that put Lucas on death
row. It was the only death sentence commuted by Bush in his six years in
office when 152 executions were carried out.

---

Source : Associated Press

May 18, 2004

Parole board votes to stop execution
Perry to have last word on mentally ill killer's fate

By MIKE TOLSON, Houston Chronicle

In the rarest of moves, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted 5-1
Monday to commute the death sentence of mentally ill inmate Kelsey
Patterson, who is scheduled for execution this evening.

The board's recommendation of a life sentence, or at minimum a 120-day
reprieve, goes to Gov. Rick Perry for action. The recommendation is under
review and a timely decision will be made today, a spokesman for the
governor's office said.

"I can still hardly believe it, but I'll take it," said Patterson's
attorney, Gary Hart. "I'm delighted, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed
that Governor Perry will continue to do the right thing and not just
because of these issues of Kelsey's mental competency that we are
currently litigating but all of Kelsey's issues. I believe the board was
influenced by the totality of the picture." That picture includes a long
history of schizophrenia and three previous aggravated assaults that were
never prosecuted because of Patterson's delusional state at the time they
occurred. However, when he shot to death a businessman and his secretary
in his hometown of Palestine in 1992, he was prosecuted for capital murder
and sent to death row despite the absence of motive.

Hart claims Patterson, 50, is delusional and not competent for execution.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday rejected his request for a
stay. Last-minute appeals are still pending with the Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Board recommendations for commutation are exceedingly rare in capital
cases. The most common reasons are troubled prosecutions, evidence of
innocence or changes in case law. In March, for instance, Robert Smith
received a unanimous vote to commute when a Harris County court determined
he was mentally retarded -- the only such recommendation presented to
Perry regarding a capital defendant. The vote, like Perry's consent, was a
foregone conclusion because the U.S. Supreme Court banned the execution of
the retarded in 2001.

Commutation on humanitarian grounds is all but unheard of. The overriding
issue in Patterson's application to the board was his extreme mental
condition, which has left him suffering from delusions for most of his
adult life.

"At the time that he killed Louis Oates and Kay Harris, Patterson was
acting under the influence of a mental illness that rendered him incapable
of conforming his conduct to the law," Hart wrote in Patterson's
application. "It does not serve either the retributive or deterrence goals
of capital punishment to put him to death for those acts. He is far less
culpable, because of his mental illness, than the average murderer, and
the prospect of the death penalty would not have quelled the delusions
that fueled his criminal act."

The board, as is its custom, issued no explanation for its recommendation.

For many years Patterson has said the only reason he shot Oates and Harris
was because local officials planted devices in his body to control his
actions. They forced him to commit this crime, he insisted, as their way
of doing away with him.

Mental illness, even severe as in Patterson's case, is not a bar to
execution. Texas has executed several mentally ill inmates. The law
requires only that a condemned prisoner understand that his execution is
imminent and the reason for it.

Hart said death row warden James Jones approached Patterson on May 4 and
asked him to complete paperwork directing the prison what to do with his
remains and the leftover funds from his inmate trust account. Patterson
refused, telling Jones he was not eligible to be executed because he has
obtained amnesty.

The defense attorney has tried without success to persuade various courts
to grant a Patterson a stay, contending he is incompetent to be executed.
In a letter to Perry requesting a 30-day reprieve, Hart pointed to recent
visits to Patterson by a member of the Board of Pardons and Paroles and by
a spiritual counselor from the Salvation Army. On both occasions,
Patterson told his visitors that he would not be executed.

Kathryn Honaker Cox, a Salvation Army major who visits regularly with
death row inmates, reported numerous examples of delusional behavior and
said in one instance Patterson stood in the day room where visits are
conducted and for an entire hour held his arms outstretched as if he were
flying. Cox also said Patterson's sisters tearfully related to her last
April that he would not sit down to visit with them because he refused to
believe they were really his sisters. He claimed they were spies sent to
get information about him, Cox said in an affidavit.

Patterson did meet with his sisters on Friday. They said he was seriously
delusional and believed his plate of beans was talking to him. Patterson
also told them that day he had been talking to a woman whom they knew had
died three years ago.

"This is not the first time Kelsey has talked to his beans or the dead,"
Hart said.

Patterson was diagnosed with schizophrenia in early adulthood. When
unmedicated and living on his own, he had a tendency to become explosively
violent. On three separate occasions, he shot co-workers without
provocation and hit another across the head with a two-by-four. He was
sent to state psychiatric facilities after each of the assaults and never
was formally prosecuted because of his delusional state at the time of the
assaults.

Patterson was seen last by mental health experts in 1999. A psychologist
retained by Hart and a psychiatrist appointed by a federal judge agreed
that Patterson was seriously ill and delusional, but neither could
determine his competency for execution at the time because Patterson would
not agree to a full evaluation.

---

Source : Houston Chronicle

Thanks for posting this. I heard a brief comment about it on the news this morning and wanted to get more details. I guess we'll soon see.

I hope Perry does the what Bush would not and commutes this sentence. My thoughts are with him and his family in this time.

Praying :(

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20040518185709990001&_mpc=news%2e10%2e11

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (May 18) - Gov. Rick Perry rejected a highly unusual parole board recommendation to commute a mentally ill killer's death sentence or delay Tuesday evening's scheduled lethal injection.
The Supreme Court also denied a stay for Kelsey Patterson, 50, whose lawyers challenged lower court rulings rejecting claims that Patterson was mentally incompetent and should not be executed.

Patterson, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, was condemned for a double slaying almost 12 years ago. His scheduled lethal injection has renewed the legal quandary of whether it is proper to execute someone who is mentally ill when the Supreme Court says it is unconstitutional to execute someone who is mentally retarded.

At least three mentally ill prisoners have been executed in Texas since the Supreme Court ruled two years ago that severely mentally retarded inmates should not be executed.

In a 5-1 vote, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles endorsed a petition from Patterson's lawyers and supporters that he be spared. Texas resumed carrying out executions in 1982, and Monday's board action marked the first time at this late stage in a condemned inmate's case the panel recommended the governor commute a death sentence.

"State and federal courts have reviewed this case no fewer than 10 times, examining his claims of mental illness and competency, as well as various other legal issues," Perry said in a statement less than an hour before Patterson's scheduled execution time. "In each instance the courts have determined there is no legal bar to his execution."

Prison officials moved forward with plans to execute Patterson, and he arrived at the death house early Tuesday afternoon. He earlier had refused to complete paperwork associated with an execution, like picking a last meal or selecting witnesses.

"He denied to the warden that he's ever going to be executed," said J. Gary Hart, Patterson's lawyer, adding his client's actions illustrate his mental incompetence.

Patterson was condemned for the 1992 shootings of Dorthy Harris, 41, a secretary at an oil company office in Palestine, and her boss, Louis Oates, 63.

Evidence showed Patterson left his home in Palestine, about 100 miles southeast of Dallas, shot Oates in the head with a .38-caliber pistol and then shot Harris when she began screaming.

Then he went home, took off his clothes and was arrested walking on the street.

In 1980 in Dallas and in 1983 in Palestine, Patterson was ruled mentally incompetent to stand trial on charges related to nonfatal shootings.

Throughout his trial, outbursts earned Patterson repeated expulsions from the courtroom. He frequently talked about "remote control devices" and "implants" that controlled him.

While on death row, he wrote nearly incomprehensible letters to courts about having amnesty and a permanent stay of execution.

In March, Perry for the first time since taking office in 2000 commuted the death sentence of a prisoner. That inmate also is mentally retarded, but was not within hours of a scheduled execution.

In 1998, four days before former self-confessed serial killer Henry Lee Lucas was to die, then-Gov. George W. Bush commuted Lucas' sentence after questions were raised about his conviction. It was the only death sentence commuted by Bush in his six years in office when 152 executions were carried out.





http://aolnews.112.2o7.net/b/ss/aolnews/1/G.5-Pd-R/s57171816619330?[AQB]&ndh=1&t=18/4/2004%2018%3A11%3A59%202%20300&pageName=AOL%20News%20-%20Texas%20Gov.%20Rejects%20Death%20Row%20Reprieve&ch=news&g=http%3A//aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp%3Fid%3D20040518185709990001%26_mpc%3Dn ews%252e10%252e11&s=800x600&c=32&j=1.3&v=Y&k=Y&bw=757&bh=403&ct=modem&hp=N&[AQE]

Keeping him and his family in my thoughts.

Phil :(

txla thanks for posting this I just had it come across. This makes me sick. one of the reason Perry said Texas doesn't have LWOP, while you have to serve 40 years, before you can come up for parole. Kelsey would be 90 years old, before he even came before the parole board. What is wrong with Perry, he can't even go with the recomendation of his own Parole and Pardons board. :angry: :blah: :argh: :banghead: :slap:

softie

Any more news on this yet?

Leftheralone, Perry turn the stay down and so the execution is being carried out as planned. I haven't gotten the word yet, but I am sure it is done by now, it is almost 7pm in Texas and Perry was the only hope.

softie

Ya Know this is EXACTLY what's wrong with our legal system. How the hell you going to execute the mentally ill?? I REALLY don't understand this. I can't even believe he was ever brought to trial. It's obvious the man isn't in touch with reality. (SIGH) This breaks my heart.

Stacy

http://adsys.townnews.com/29345681305305/ads/palestineherald.com/news+top/3608.jpg

5-18-04
By PAUL STONE
H-P Associate Editor
Texas Gov. Rick Perry continued late this morning to review a pair of recommendations made Monday by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles regarding today's scheduled execution of a Palestine man.

Late Monday afternoon, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted, 5-1, to recommend that the death sentence of 50-year-old Kelsey Patterson be commuted to "a lesser sentence," while also recommending that the offender receive a 120-day reprieve.

Patterson is scheduled to be put to death sometime after 6 p.m. today in Huntsville for the 1992 Palestine murders of former Texaco distributor Louis Oates, 63, and his secretary, 41-year-old Dorthy "Kay" Harris.

This morning Perry was reviewing the board's recommendations, but no timetable had been set for his decision, according to Kathy Walt, a spokesperson for the governor.

"The case is under review," Walt told the Herald-Press shortly after 8:30 a.m. today. "There is no special timetable by which the governor will make a decision."

Some veteran observers of the death penalty process in Texas have referred to the board's recommendation of a commutation of Patterson's sentence as virtually unprecedented at this late stage.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials, meanwhile, were proceeding as if Patterson's execution will take place as scheduled.

"Even though the parole board has made a recommendation that Mr. Patterson's sentence be commuted to life," TDCJ spokesperson Michelle Lyons said her agency was preparing for tonight's execution.

This morning, for instance, Lyons said Patterson will be allowed to visit family members and friends. If TDCJ officials have not received word of Perry's decision by early afternoon today, she added that Patterson will be transported from the Polunsky Unit in Livingston to the Walls Unit in Huntsville.

The Anderson County district attorney's office, meanwhile, was "pulling out all the stops" this morning to try to allow Patterson's execution to occur as scheduled.

In addition to faxing letters to the governor's office from multiple individuals, Lowe said he spoke this morning with State Sen. Todd Staples, R-Palestine, asking the local legislator to speak with Perry about the matter.

This morning Staples told the Herald-Press he had talked with the governor today about Patterson's case and scheduled execution.

"This individual (Patterson) is a cold-blooded killer," Staples said. "The jury heard the facts and evidence at the time of sentencing, numerous courts have heard and rejected the appeal, and I believe the jury's punishment should be upheld. I have conveyed these thoughts to the governor."

Lowe described members of the victims' families as "let down.

"It's kind of like you got hit in the stomach," Lowe said.

Austin attorney J. Gary Hart, who has represented Patterson for the past 7 1/2 years, has steadfastly argued before the courts that his client is "delusional" and incompetent to be executed under state law.

Up until Monday, Hart's arguments consistently had been rejected.

This morning Hart told the Herald-Press he is continuing to file motions with state and federal courts despite the board's recommendations to Perry.

Hart said he had separate motions before the U.S. Supreme Court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals this morning.

Patterson was twice charged with attempted murder in the early 1980s in separate shootings. On both occasions, however, he was found incompetent to stand trial. On a third occasion, Hart said Patterson used a "two-by-four" to assault a fellow employee at a Dallas business.

Hart said Patterson, who has been diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic, was admitted to Rusk State Hospital on at least three occasions during the 1980s and also was hospitalized at Terrell State Hospital.

"He would spend, on average, about two or 2 1/2 months each time, and they would simply cut him loose each time," Hart said.

The attorney said the "system" has to bear some of the responsibility for the actions of a delusional man who was not properly handled.

"At every step of the process, the judicial system, the mental health system, the criminal justice system has to share some of the blame for this," Hart said this morning.

When asked if the system failed Patterson, Hart responded, "I believe that myself with all my heart".

The post above was from todays Palestine Herald-Press.

Sorry about the bad link! I clicked onto properties?:confused:

If you notice in the clipping above,the state sen. is from Palestine where Patterson was convicted! Sounds fishy to me!!!:angry: I believe that this case is political!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:(

I hope and pray that it comes back to bite them all in the butt!!!:angry:

It will bite them in the ass. No matter how political officials believe they are above everything we all have to answer for our actions one day. Be it a Governor or President murder is Murder and against the law of God and Man.

When I read just moments ago that the execution had proceeded my heart sank.

May Mr. Patterson rest in peace and my prayers are with his family and all who loved him.