Paranoid schizophrenic man executed in Texas
HUNTSVILLE, Texas – Tuesday evening after Gov. Rick Perry rejected a parole board’s highly unusual recommendation to commute his death sentence or delay the execution, Kelsey Patterson, 50, also lost an appeal to the Supreme Court in the hour before he was put to death.
A diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, Patterson was condemned for a double slaying almost 12 years ago. His lethal injection 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.
Strapped to the death chamber gurney, Patterson mumbled, “No kin, no kin, no kin. I’m not guilty of a charge of capital murder. Give me my rights. I’m acquitted of capital murder.”
As the warden leaned over him and asked if he had a final statement, Patterson responded, “Statement to what? Statement to what? I’m not guilty of the charge of capital murder.”
He continued to ramble, saying “give me my life back” as the lethal drugs took effect. He was pronounced dead at 6:20 p.m.
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 execution time. “In each instance the courts have determined there is no legal bar to his execution.”
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.