Execution Watch: 5/16/2012

The state that carries out more executions than any other state is ready to kill again...

ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT, TEXAS PLANS TO EXECUTE:

STEVEN STALEY, 49. Convicted of murdering a restaurant manager during a 1989 robbery in Fort Worth, Mr. Staley is a paranoid schizophrenic whose severe symptoms have caused three previous execution dates to be withdrawn on the grounds that he was too mentally ill to understand the real reason he was being put to death. Mr. Staley's mental incompetence is so frustrating to people who want his death sentence carried out, he has been the subject of a court order to be forcibly medicated in order to make him sane long enough to qualify for execution. His childhood included a father who was an acute alcoholic and a mother who was so mentally ill, she once tried to drive a stake through his chest and, on another occasion, tried to stab him with a butcher knife. Once doctor who evaluated Mr. Staley said his symptoms included hallucinations, paralysis, depression (sometimes to the point of being catatonic) and delusional thinking. The U.S. Supreme Court has not prohibited the execution of mentally ill people, but it bars the execution of anyone so mentally incompetent they do not understand why they are being put to death.

For more information on Mr. Staley, click here.

RADIO PROGRAM PREVIEW
EXECUTION WATCH
Unless a stay is issued, we'll broadcast ...Wednesday, May 16, 2012, 6-7 PM CT
KPFT Houston 90.1 FM
Listen online: www.executionwatch.org > Listen


You can find more information on Execution Watch's Facebook page.