Alabama Executes Mentally Ill Man

A mentally ill man was executed in the electric chair today for the 1981 murder of a veterinary school student.

Despite the protests of advocates who said his sentence should be commuted to life in prison without parole, Varnall Weeks, 43, was put to death at 12:04 a.m.

In April, a state judge declared him mentally ill, but ruled that he was competent to be put to death because he understood why he was being executed.

“My brother is insane and he’s been insane since childhood,” Lester Weeks said.

Weeks was executed for the October 1981 robbery and slaying of Mark Anthony Batts, 24, a Tuskegee Institute veterinary student.