A federal judge has declared that Scott Panetti, a longtime resident of Texas’ death row, is incompetent for execution due to the severity of his mental illness. The decision comes more than 15 years after the U.S. Supreme Court determined—also in Panetti’s case—that the Eighth Amendment bars the state from executing someone who doesn’t understand the reason for their execution.
For three decades, Panetti has been among the most well-known severely mentally ill death row prisoners in the United States. But if he were to be executed, it wouldn’t be a first for Texas—in the past two decades, the state has executed numerous people with severe mental illnesses, including Kelsey Patterson in 2004. And while the governorship has changed hands since then, many of Texas’ decision-makers remain the same.
This latest ruling decision in Panetti’s case, experts say, might even have some bearing on other mentally ill death row residents’ situations.
