As a judge considers arguments from prosecutors and defense attorneys over whether delusional beliefs about the legal system are enough to keep a South Carolina prisoner from being executed, the inmate himself decided to weigh in with his own handwritten legal papers.
Just weeks before Steven Bixby was set to die earlier this year, the state Supreme Court stopped his execution and asked a lower court to evaluate if his lawyers are unable to defend him because of beliefs Bixby holds, like that most laws are unconstitutional, that citizens have an absolute right to defend their property to the death and that judges who rule against him are guided by Satan.
