Ruled insane convicted killer gets drug to make him temporarly sane

[IChing]

A Texas jury decided in 1991 that Steven Kenneth Staley,
now 43, should be put to death for killing a restaurant manager,

but three days before his February 2006 date with destiny, psychologists testified that he is mentally ill,
and the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a mentally ill person cannot be executed

. The solution, declared state judge Wayne Salvant in April,

is for the state to inject Staley with enough psychotropic medicine to make him sufficiently sane
to understand why he is going to die, at which point he can be killed.

(In similar cases, drugs improved Charles Singleton enough for his 2004 execution in Arkansas, but have failed since 1999 to restore Texan Emanuel Kemp's competency.)

http://www.msnbc.com/comics/nw.asp?vts=51920061011

[Kipling]

1. What the fuck?

Presumably the relevant factor is what sort of mental state he was in when he comitted the murder, not when he was sentanced for it.

[IChing]

2. Got to love. the irony of the mercy of the court

You're cured now we have to kill you.

[tularetom]

3. I was gonna ask what they would do

if he had a terminal disease, but then I remembered that here in CA we recently fried an old dude that had heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

[MadHound]

4. Well, if Mr. Staley has a lawyer anywhere near competent

All this will do is to prompt another round of appeals and such, which most likely he would win. It isn't a function of your mental state now, it is a function of your mental state at the time of the crime, and there is plenty of legal precedent out there to keep the needle at bay for Mr. Staley.

Of course this is Texas:eyes:

[etherealtruth]

5. Didn't Texas go to the SCOTUS

... trying to preserve their "right" to execute the mentally retarded, as well ... I don't recall the outcome. :banghead:

Edit: put an X in Texas

[unblock]

6. not true

you are correct in saying that the defendant's mental state at the time of the crime is relevant to the legal proceedings.

however, mental state during the legal proceedings is also relevant. you can't have a fair trial if you're unaware of what's going on around you. also, the law is more comfortable executing people who understand that they're being punished than it is executing people who are oblivious to what's going on.

[MadHound]

7. I hear you, but apparently, judging from the article

This medicating he's getting is after the trial:shrug: Perhaps I'm reading the article wrong, but that's what it looks like to me:shrug:

[stellanoir]

8. All murder is insanity

with the possible exceptions of self defense or defense of a child or someone who can't defend themselves. IMHO

This ruling truly qualifies as insanity to me. Just saying.

[paparush]

9. Same thing happened to Shrub**