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Thursday, February 5, 2004
Condemned killer receives stay
By John Moritz
Star-Telegram Austin Bureau
AUSTIN - A federal judge has halted the scheduled execution of Fredericksburg killer Scott Panetti, saying Wednesday that
the state courts should re-evaluate claims by the condemned man's attorneys that he is not mentally competent to understand
his fate.
The order by U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks of Austin delays Panetti's execution for at least 60 days. Texas Attorney
General Greg Abbott, whose office represents the state when death penalty cases reach the federal courts, will not appeal
Sparks' order.
Panetti's execution was scheduled for this evening in Huntsville. He was condemned for killing his in-laws with a rifle
in 1992. He took his wife and child hostage before releasing them after a seven-hour standoff with police.
Panetti's attorneys and mental health advocates have been working to halt the execution on the grounds that Panetti was
long ago determined to be schizophrenic and was allowed to act as his own lawyer even though he told the court that he planned
to call Jesus Christ, John F. Kennedy and his alter ego, Sarge, as defense witnesses.
The lead homicide investigator in the killings called Panetti a clever actor.
"I'm sorry, I just don't buy it," said Fredericksburg police Lt. Bob Bertelson. "Why would someone who
didn't know right from wrong run from police, take hostages and engage in a seven-hour standoff?"
But San Antonio lawyer Michael Gross, Panetti's appellate lawyer, said his client has a long and documented history of
mental illness, including several stays in psychiatric institutions.
"I am extremely relieved and excited that we'll be able to have Scott's condition reviewed," said Gross, who
had lost a string of court appeals and a request to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to have his client's death sentence
set aside.
"This means we can still fight."
According to a Knight Ridder News Service report, Panetti's declining mental condition undermined his marriage to his
second wife, Sonja Alvarado, in the early 1990s. Alvarado left him in 1992 and moved in with her parents in Fredericksburg.
On Sept. 8, 1992, Panetti awoke early, shaved his head and went to Alvarado's parents' house with a rifle.
Alvarado said he broke through a sliding glass door and shot her parents at near point-blank range.
"Then he pointed the gun at me and pulled the trigger again," Alvarado said. The rifle jammed, and Panetti panicked.
He took Alvarado and their daughter hostage and fled, which led to the extended standoff.
Gross and lawyer Scott Monroe, who was assigned to assist Panetti with procedural aspects of the trial, told how Panetti
wore a cowboy get-up, complete with a 10-gallon hat, as he mounted his court defense. Panetti represented himself because
he had fired his attorney and insisted that he be allowed to proceed on his own.
Although lucid at times, the Wisconsin native was also often delusional and incoherent during the proceedings, the lawyers
said at a Tuesday news conference in Austin.
In his stay order, Sparks wrote that Gross had presented clinical evidence to support his contention that Panetti suffers
from mental illness. Gross relied on the findings of psychologist Mark Cunningham and the observations of law professor David
Dow, an anti-death penalty activist.
In his ruling, Sparks wrote that according to Cunningham and Dow, Panetti is "delusional and misunderstands whether
and why he will be executed."
Texas law requires that condemned inmates must comprehend the reasons for their execution before the death sentence can
be carried out.
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