Monday, February 21, 2005
March "Mad"ness
According to the Death Penalty Information Center's list of scheduled executions for 2005, there are currently 18 executions scheduled for March. Four of those executions have been stayed due to the studies of the death penalty going on in Pennsylvania. Two others are likely to receive stays for the stay reason. However, this leaves an even dozen executions (in eight different states) likely to occur in one month. Those of us who are letter writers have our work cut out for us. Let's get on it!
John David Duty
The State of Oklahoma was originally scheduled to execute John David Duty on February 24. Duty was convicted of killing his cellmate while serving time in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. He had requested an execution date for January. However, Duty has now sought a stay and intends to appeal his conviction and sentence. Duty's stay was granted and the February 24th execution date put on hold.
Duty Execution Put On Hold
Duty Execution Put On Hold
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Dennis Bagwell - Texas
The State of Texas executed Dennis Bagwell tonight. Bagwell was on death row for the brutal killings of four people, including his mother. His was the third Texas execution this year, with ten more Texas executions scheduled already. Bagwell served just over nine years on death row (fairly short tenure these days). He was 41 at the time of his death.
Dennis Bagwell Executed
Dennis Bagwell Executed
Thursday, February 10, 2005
Good news in California! The California Supreme Court has unanimously held that you cannot strictly define "mental retardation" through a specific IQ standard. Instead, the Court found that an inmate can get a hearing to challenge his or her death sentence if a qualified expert supports the inmate's claim of retardation (or a "friend" of the inmate if the inmate is not competent).
30 of California's 640 death row inmates have previously claimed to be mentally retarded and ineligible for a death sentence/execution. Today's ruling opens the door for "dozens" more to make similar claims throughout their appeals process.
This is grand news.
Court Clears Way for Death Row Challenges for Retarded
30 of California's 640 death row inmates have previously claimed to be mentally retarded and ineligible for a death sentence/execution. Today's ruling opens the door for "dozens" more to make similar claims throughout their appeals process.
This is grand news.
Court Clears Way for Death Row Challenges for Retarded
Monday, February 07, 2005
Death Row Syndrome: Guest Blogger
Hello everyone. Of course, to date, I'm the only person who has written anything on The Lonely Abolitionist. However, commentary from David Seth Michaels, author of an online abolition email commentary I receive, really struck a core with me and I asked David for permission to reprint his words here (I guess I'm not so "lonely" anymore eh?). I hope you'll take the time to read David's essay. Its quite poignant.
Is Anybody Paying Attention?
As Circus Ross twists and turns and careens through the courts with Ross attempting again to kill himself and the courts trying to decide if he's competent to do so and if his lawyer's license should be punched (see this article, if you haven't already), one of the important parts of the case is the focus on "death penalty syndrome."
In Ross's case the question is whether being confined in horrible conditions on death row for 20 years contributes to subverting his already fragile competence and leads him to demand a state assisted suicide to escape barbarous conditions.
Can you imagine waiting for 20 years on death row? Can you imagine the uncertainty and unremitting anxiety of this? Can you imagine waking each day to the question of whether as the result of someone else's decision you will live or be killed?
By any terms 20 years' actual imprisonment-- leave aside the question of whether an execution will occur-- is a long, long sentence. In Ross's case 20 years is 44% of his life. Compare, if you can, everything that's happened in your life since 1985 with being confined in virtually solitary confinement 23 hours a day on death row. Think, if you were alive then, of 1980, what you were doing then, where you lived. Take a look at photos from then, if you have any. Notice how the color seems weird, especially the reds, and how distant the images are. Look at yourself in these photos: how were you then? Compare yourself to now.
Is there anything wrong with waiting 20 years in uncertainty and fear before a death sentence is carried out?
And what about the conditions in which death sentenced prisoners wait to be killed? There was a story Thursday that all of Connecticut's death row inmates are now on a hunger strike (except the 2 with diabetes). According to Reuters (edited by me):
HARTFORD, Conn. (Reuters) - Five prisoners sentenced to be executed in Connecticut began a hunger strike on Thursday to protest their solitary living conditions which they called "inhumane and tantamount to psychological torture."
The inmates said their action was unrelated to the case of serial killer Michael Ross, whose execution was postponed after his lawyer said prison conditions may have made him give up his appeals.
***
"What we are doing is simply refusing to eat for the duration, however long," the prisoners wrote. "We are NOT doing this in protest of Michael Ross' execution.
"What we request is not unreasonable: communal recreation," they wrote in a statement released by The Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty.
Instead of spending almost their entire day in solitary confinement, the inmates want time out of their cells and a chance to interact with each other.
"The appeals process takes decades and to endure these conditions of enforced segregation is inhumane and tantamount to psychological torture," the inmates wrote.
Notice what the prisoners are demanding. Does their virtually solitary confinement 23 hours a day have a "penological justification?" Why is it that guards at the Connecticut death row are required to be transferred after 2 years because of the stress of their working conditions?? Think, if you can, of a period in which you had no human contact of any kind. Was it a couple of hours, a day, a week, a month? How many people have been through this kind of isolation and confinement for 20 years?
Connecticut is not unique. The average prisoner executed in the US spends between 11 and 12 years under a death sentence. That's a long time to wait. In 2000 there were 8 prisoners on death row for 24 years or more.
The delay by itself is an important question. Death row in California has 630 people on it and their time waiting is daily mounting. How long can we hold execution over their heads before we say it's enough, it's too cruel, too much time has elapsed? Or put another way, at the margin, what benefit to anyone does an execution have if life without parole is available.
There are two parts of the issue. The first is the elapsing of time itself; the second, the conditions of confinement.
At least two justices of the United States Supreme Court, Justices Breyer and Stevens, believe that long delay violates the Constitution's prohibition of cruel and inhuman punishment. Their dissenting opinions in Knight v. Florida, 532 US 1011 (2001) and Foster v. Florida, 123 S.Ct 420 (2002), in which the Court declined to consider death row delays of 27 years (Foster), 25 years (Knight) and 19 years 4 months (Knight) list decisions from other civilized countries (including the UK's Privy Council) holding that delay beyond 15 years is unacceptable, degrading, shocking and cruel.
But it takes 4 votes to grant certiorari and to have a review in the Supreme Court. One of those four votes is not coming from Justice Clarence Thomas who wrote vicious opinions concurring in the denial of certiorari in Foster and Knight which included this gem:
"Petitioner [Foster] could long ago have ended his "anxieties and uncertainties," ..., by submitting to what the people of Florida have deemed him to deserve: execution." 123 S.Ct at 471.
So much for compassion. So much for refraining from killing and preventing others from killing. The Supreme Court as presently constituted clearly isn't the answer. If Bush makes more appointments, it will continue not to be the answer.
The answer is abolition. As long as there is a death penalty, we're going to have people like Michael Ross who seek a state assisted suicide and render us powerless to stop them. As long as there is a death penalty, we're going to have decades long incarceration of prisoners pursuing appeals that are their right and awaiting execution.
What is wrong with us that we permit these shameful spectacles to continue to be carried out in our names?
Copyright David Seth Michaels 2005
David Seth Michaels is an attorney living and working in Spencertown, New York. For more information on David, please see his website.
Is Anybody Paying Attention?
As Circus Ross twists and turns and careens through the courts with Ross attempting again to kill himself and the courts trying to decide if he's competent to do so and if his lawyer's license should be punched (see this article, if you haven't already), one of the important parts of the case is the focus on "death penalty syndrome."
In Ross's case the question is whether being confined in horrible conditions on death row for 20 years contributes to subverting his already fragile competence and leads him to demand a state assisted suicide to escape barbarous conditions.
Can you imagine waiting for 20 years on death row? Can you imagine the uncertainty and unremitting anxiety of this? Can you imagine waking each day to the question of whether as the result of someone else's decision you will live or be killed?
By any terms 20 years' actual imprisonment-- leave aside the question of whether an execution will occur-- is a long, long sentence. In Ross's case 20 years is 44% of his life. Compare, if you can, everything that's happened in your life since 1985 with being confined in virtually solitary confinement 23 hours a day on death row. Think, if you were alive then, of 1980, what you were doing then, where you lived. Take a look at photos from then, if you have any. Notice how the color seems weird, especially the reds, and how distant the images are. Look at yourself in these photos: how were you then? Compare yourself to now.
Is there anything wrong with waiting 20 years in uncertainty and fear before a death sentence is carried out?
And what about the conditions in which death sentenced prisoners wait to be killed? There was a story Thursday that all of Connecticut's death row inmates are now on a hunger strike (except the 2 with diabetes). According to Reuters (edited by me):
HARTFORD, Conn. (Reuters) - Five prisoners sentenced to be executed in Connecticut began a hunger strike on Thursday to protest their solitary living conditions which they called "inhumane and tantamount to psychological torture."
The inmates said their action was unrelated to the case of serial killer Michael Ross, whose execution was postponed after his lawyer said prison conditions may have made him give up his appeals.
***
"What we are doing is simply refusing to eat for the duration, however long," the prisoners wrote. "We are NOT doing this in protest of Michael Ross' execution.
"What we request is not unreasonable: communal recreation," they wrote in a statement released by The Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty.
Instead of spending almost their entire day in solitary confinement, the inmates want time out of their cells and a chance to interact with each other.
"The appeals process takes decades and to endure these conditions of enforced segregation is inhumane and tantamount to psychological torture," the inmates wrote.
Notice what the prisoners are demanding. Does their virtually solitary confinement 23 hours a day have a "penological justification?" Why is it that guards at the Connecticut death row are required to be transferred after 2 years because of the stress of their working conditions?? Think, if you can, of a period in which you had no human contact of any kind. Was it a couple of hours, a day, a week, a month? How many people have been through this kind of isolation and confinement for 20 years?
Connecticut is not unique. The average prisoner executed in the US spends between 11 and 12 years under a death sentence. That's a long time to wait. In 2000 there were 8 prisoners on death row for 24 years or more.
The delay by itself is an important question. Death row in California has 630 people on it and their time waiting is daily mounting. How long can we hold execution over their heads before we say it's enough, it's too cruel, too much time has elapsed? Or put another way, at the margin, what benefit to anyone does an execution have if life without parole is available.
There are two parts of the issue. The first is the elapsing of time itself; the second, the conditions of confinement.
At least two justices of the United States Supreme Court, Justices Breyer and Stevens, believe that long delay violates the Constitution's prohibition of cruel and inhuman punishment. Their dissenting opinions in Knight v. Florida, 532 US 1011 (2001) and Foster v. Florida, 123 S.Ct 420 (2002), in which the Court declined to consider death row delays of 27 years (Foster), 25 years (Knight) and 19 years 4 months (Knight) list decisions from other civilized countries (including the UK's Privy Council) holding that delay beyond 15 years is unacceptable, degrading, shocking and cruel.
But it takes 4 votes to grant certiorari and to have a review in the Supreme Court. One of those four votes is not coming from Justice Clarence Thomas who wrote vicious opinions concurring in the denial of certiorari in Foster and Knight which included this gem:
"Petitioner [Foster] could long ago have ended his "anxieties and uncertainties," ..., by submitting to what the people of Florida have deemed him to deserve: execution." 123 S.Ct at 471.
So much for compassion. So much for refraining from killing and preventing others from killing. The Supreme Court as presently constituted clearly isn't the answer. If Bush makes more appointments, it will continue not to be the answer.
The answer is abolition. As long as there is a death penalty, we're going to have people like Michael Ross who seek a state assisted suicide and render us powerless to stop them. As long as there is a death penalty, we're going to have decades long incarceration of prisoners pursuing appeals that are their right and awaiting execution.
What is wrong with us that we permit these shameful spectacles to continue to be carried out in our names?
Copyright David Seth Michaels 2005
David Seth Michaels is an attorney living and working in Spencertown, New York. For more information on David, please see his website.
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Max Soffar
Max Soffar has been on death row for over 23 years. His conviction was overturned late last year and he is being re-arraigned today in a Houston district court. Max has a very strong claim of innocence. There is no physical evidence to put him at the scene of the crime or any eye witness, and his "confessions" to the crimes all contradict one another and do not match up with the facts of the murders themselves. Why would Max confess? Well, read the article, the author does a better job of explaining the reasons than I could at this juncture.
A Jew on death row
A Jew on death row
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
New York Death Penalty Petition
Network for Justice is working to get folks networked together against the reinstatement of the death penalty in New York State. If you are in New York, please select the link below to go to my partner networking site with Network for Justice and sign the petition.
Network for Justice
Network for Justice
Monday, January 31, 2005
Michael Ross: Legal Update VI
Well, I never thought there would be a legal update VI, but there is. Michael Ross has now requested a psychiatric exam (or he will later today). His execution is scheduled for 9:00 tonight, but a request for a psychiatric exam should stay that date with death. If so, the state's death warrant will expire at the end of the night. The state will then have to go back to the courts for another warrant.
Serial Killer Seeks Examination Instead of Execution Today
Serial Killer Seeks Examination Instead of Execution Today
Saturday, January 29, 2005
Michael Ross: Legal Update V
This time, the delay in the execution of Michael Ross is at the request of the attorney Ross hired to fight FOR his execution. The lawyer requested the delay after federal District Judge Robert Chatigny addressed him and threatened to have his license if evidence emerged that Ross is indeed incompetent and counsel fought for his execution despite knowing of such evidence. Ross is now scheduled to die at 9:00 p.m. on Monday.
Lawyer Request Delays Connecticut Execution
Lawyer Request Delays Connecticut Execution
Friday, January 28, 2005
Michael Ross: Legal Update IV
The Supreme Court has lifted the 22 hour stay put in place by the Second Circuit. Connecticut will execute Michael Ross at 2:01 am Saturday morning.
Serial killer to die Saturday
Serial killer to die Saturday
Michael Ross: Legal Update III
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has overturned the temporary restraining order issued by District Judge Robert N. Chatigny on Wednesday. However, the Second Circuit stayed its ruling until 12:01 Sunday morning in order to give Dan Ross, Michael's father, time to appeal its decision to the United States Supreme Court.
If the Supreme Court rules before 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning then Ross will be executed on schedule. If it does not rule until sometime during the day on Saturday, then the state will not get its execution until after 12:01 Sunday morning. Based on its earlier rulings in this case, it is doubtful that the Supreme Court will reinvoke the restraining order. However, stranger things have happened.
Court Overturns Ross Restraining Order
If the Supreme Court rules before 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning then Ross will be executed on schedule. If it does not rule until sometime during the day on Saturday, then the state will not get its execution until after 12:01 Sunday morning. Based on its earlier rulings in this case, it is doubtful that the Supreme Court will reinvoke the restraining order. However, stranger things have happened.
Court Overturns Ross Restraining Order
Thursday, January 27, 2005
The Exonerated
Court TV is showing the TV movie version of the off-Broadway play The Exonerated several times this week. I strongly encourage you to tune in. Record it and show it to all of your friends. The play is powerful and I'm sure the TV movie version will be exceptionally well done. The six real-life individuals portrayed in the play are being read on screen by Susan Sarandon, Brian Dennehy, Aidan Quinn, Danny Glover, Delroy Lindo and David Brown Jr. These are amazing actors telling heart wrenching stories. If you care about this movement (or even if you don't and you just want to view amazing true life drama), you cannot miss The Exonerated. These portrayals are real people with real histories and real experience on death row. Their stories are important.
Sarandon is a noted death penalty activist (I imagine she would be alright with that term, but to be honest I'm not sure I've seen her use it). In the article I've linked below, she is quoted as saying: "What an individual will feel or want to do is different from the rules you want your government to apply, and how you treat your prisoners and how you apply your justice is one of the main tenets of society. It's a very mixed message to teach your kids to use words to work things out and then have a government that so blithely and capriciously doles out the death penalty. It's a completely corrupt system." I've never thought to explain myself in this way. People ask me all the time what I would do if one of my beloved were the victim of a horrible murder. It's possibly the hardest question to answer. I am against the application of the death penalty in all cases, but I imagine that if someone I loved dearly were murdered my anger and grief would rock me to the core. Sarandon's statement clarifies what I want my answer to be: what I may feel or want to do is different from the rules I want the government to apply; how we treat our prisoners and how we apply justice is one of the main tenets of our society. Indeed, it speaks to the very value we place on humanity.
TV movie tells stories of death row's exonerated
(As an aside, how amazing does Ms. Sarandon look in those Revlon ads she's been doing? There are so many people UNDER fifty who wish they could look like that. GOOD FOR YOU...and many props to Revlon for recognizing true quality and attraction! You go girl!)
Sarandon is a noted death penalty activist (I imagine she would be alright with that term, but to be honest I'm not sure I've seen her use it). In the article I've linked below, she is quoted as saying: "What an individual will feel or want to do is different from the rules you want your government to apply, and how you treat your prisoners and how you apply your justice is one of the main tenets of society. It's a very mixed message to teach your kids to use words to work things out and then have a government that so blithely and capriciously doles out the death penalty. It's a completely corrupt system." I've never thought to explain myself in this way. People ask me all the time what I would do if one of my beloved were the victim of a horrible murder. It's possibly the hardest question to answer. I am against the application of the death penalty in all cases, but I imagine that if someone I loved dearly were murdered my anger and grief would rock me to the core. Sarandon's statement clarifies what I want my answer to be: what I may feel or want to do is different from the rules I want the government to apply; how we treat our prisoners and how we apply justice is one of the main tenets of our society. Indeed, it speaks to the very value we place on humanity.
TV movie tells stories of death row's exonerated
(As an aside, how amazing does Ms. Sarandon look in those Revlon ads she's been doing? There are so many people UNDER fifty who wish they could look like that. GOOD FOR YOU...and many props to Revlon for recognizing true quality and attraction! You go girl!)
Michael Ross: Legal Update II
In another 5-4 vote, the United States Supreme Court overturned the stay of execution granted to Michael Ross (well actually to those acting in Ross' interests) by District Court Judge Robert Chatigny earlier this week. There is one more appeal pending before the Second Circuit. Chances are, no matter how the Second Circuit rules on that appeal, the case will again go to the United States Supreme Court. Nevertheless, the State of Connecticut has scheduled Ross' execution for 2:00am Saturday morning. Barring any emergency stays to grant the Court more time for review (unlikely), Connecticut will go through with its first lethal injection and its first execution in over forty years.
Curiously, the USSC vote was 5-4. The Chief Justice has been working from home and has not been hearing oral argument or voting on many of the other non-emergency cases on the Court's 2004-2005 calendar. Yet, he took part in this vote (and has in other death penalty stay cases). As such, there was no possibility of a tie.
Supreme Court lifts stay on Ross execution
Curiously, the USSC vote was 5-4. The Chief Justice has been working from home and has not been hearing oral argument or voting on many of the other non-emergency cases on the Court's 2004-2005 calendar. Yet, he took part in this vote (and has in other death penalty stay cases). As such, there was no possibility of a tie.
Supreme Court lifts stay on Ross execution
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Kenneth Richey
The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has granted Kenny Richey a new trial. The Sixth Circuit called Richey's original defense "incompetent" and indicated that his numerous failed appeals were "injustices." Richey was convicted in 1987 for setting a fire that killed a two year old girl. He has been on death row in Ohio ever since.
There is a possibility that Richey is innocent. He will now get a new trial and the prosecution will be held to its burden a second time (this time presumably, Richey will have a sufficient and even zealous defense). If Richey is found not-guilty, it will mean that the State of Ohio has held a foreign national on death row for almost twenty years in connection with a crime for which he could not be proven guilty beyond all reasonable doubt. The state has 90 days to decide whether to retry Richey. If it chooses not to retry him, it will have to release him.
Richey is a native of Scotland and a British citizen (he holds dual citizenship with the United States). Members of the British Parliament have been up in arms about Richey's death sentence and have pleaded with the governor of Ohio to save Richey's life. Of course, the UK does not have a death penalty. Imagine that...
UK Man Granted New Trial in Ohio Arson Murder (Reuters)
Death Row Briton's Conviction Overturned (The Independent)
As a side note, the differences in the two articles linked above are quite telling.
For more information on media coverage of this case, see the NCADP blog.
There is a possibility that Richey is innocent. He will now get a new trial and the prosecution will be held to its burden a second time (this time presumably, Richey will have a sufficient and even zealous defense). If Richey is found not-guilty, it will mean that the State of Ohio has held a foreign national on death row for almost twenty years in connection with a crime for which he could not be proven guilty beyond all reasonable doubt. The state has 90 days to decide whether to retry Richey. If it chooses not to retry him, it will have to release him.
Richey is a native of Scotland and a British citizen (he holds dual citizenship with the United States). Members of the British Parliament have been up in arms about Richey's death sentence and have pleaded with the governor of Ohio to save Richey's life. Of course, the UK does not have a death penalty. Imagine that...
UK Man Granted New Trial in Ohio Arson Murder (Reuters)
Death Row Briton's Conviction Overturned (The Independent)
As a side note, the differences in the two articles linked above are quite telling.
For more information on media coverage of this case, see the NCADP blog.
Michael Ross: Legal Update
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld the decision of the United States District Court to stay the execution of Michael Ross to allow more time to evaluate his competency. The state is now appealing to the United States Supreme Court. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg can lift the stay herself or refer the case to the entire Court for review. Considering who Ginsburg is now and who she was before she joined the Court, all bets are on her referring the case to the full Court. Ross vehemently objects to assertions that he is incompetent and continues to insist that he be executed as soon as possible. Stay tuned!
Appeals court halts Ross execution
Additionally, for those of you interested in receiving up to date information on the Ross case, please check out Kirby's Reports. Kirby's Reports blogs Connecticut legal news and has been tracking the press and case decisions on the Ross execution in detail.
Appeals court halts Ross execution
Additionally, for those of you interested in receiving up to date information on the Ross case, please check out Kirby's Reports. Kirby's Reports blogs Connecticut legal news and has been tracking the press and case decisions on the Ross execution in detail.
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Timothy Don Carr - Georgia
The State of Georgia performed its first execution of the year tonight. Timothy Carr was pronounced dead at 8:37 this evening. Both the United States Supreme Court and the Georgia Supreme Court refused to block his execution, despite strong arguments that Carr committed the murder under the explicitly direction (and some say control) of his girlfriend (who received a life sentence and could receive parole). Carr's other two accomplices were 16 at the time of the crime. One served no prison time and the other served 18 months in a juvenile detention center.
Timothy Carr was 34 at the time of his death. Before entering the death chamber, Carr expressed regret and apologized for his crime.
Tim Carr Executed
Timothy Carr was 34 at the time of his death. Before entering the death chamber, Carr expressed regret and apologized for his crime.
Tim Carr Executed
Troy Kunkle - Texas
This time, the title is in italics. There was no last minute stay for Troy Kunkle tonight. The State of Texas executed him around 8:00. Kunkle's execution was originally scheduled for 6:00 but was delayed two hours while the United States Supreme Court considered arguments of his counsel in a last minute appeal. Obviously, the Court denied that appeal.
Before his death, Kunkle asked for forgiveness. He stated: "I would like to ask you to forgive me. I made a mistake and I am sorry for what I did. All I can do is ask you to forgive me. I love you and I will see all of you in Heaven. I love you very much. Praise Jesus. I love you."
On the day of his death, Troy Kunkle was 38 years old. He was 18 at the time of the murder for which he was killed. All totaled, Kunkle spent more than half of his life on death row.
Troy Kunkle Executed
Before his death, Kunkle asked for forgiveness. He stated: "I would like to ask you to forgive me. I made a mistake and I am sorry for what I did. All I can do is ask you to forgive me. I love you and I will see all of you in Heaven. I love you very much. Praise Jesus. I love you."
On the day of his death, Troy Kunkle was 38 years old. He was 18 at the time of the murder for which he was killed. All totaled, Kunkle spent more than half of his life on death row.
Troy Kunkle Executed
Troy Kunkle: Legal Update
The United States Supreme Court is considering tonight whether to block Troy Kunkle's execution. I'll update as I know more. Kunkle was scheduled to be executed at 6:00 pm this evening.
Kunkle Case Before US Supreme Court
Kunkle Case Before US Supreme Court
George Jones
Miracle of miracles! (does my sarcasm ever get old? Huh, didn't think so...)
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has granted George Jones a stay. Jones was scheduled to be executed on Thursday, but the Court granted a stay in order to provide time to study Jones' mental capacity and to determine if he is eligible for execution under the United States Supreme Court's decisions involving mental illness and mental retardation.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has granted George Jones a stay. Jones was scheduled to be executed on Thursday, but the Court granted a stay in order to provide time to study Jones' mental capacity and to determine if he is eligible for execution under the United States Supreme Court's decisions involving mental illness and mental retardation.
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