Scott Panetti is "mentally competent" to be executed, 5th Circuit Court of Appeals says

AUSTIN - Death row inmate  Scott Panetti, who wore a purple cowboy costume during his 1995 capital  murder trial and tried to subpoena Jesus Christ and John F. Kennedy, is  mentally competent to be executed, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

Panetti was spared execution in February so the courts could explore his claim of mental illness.

U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks, who ordered the execution delay, ruled that Panetti meets the standard set by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals  of knowing that he committed two murders, that he is to be executed and why.

Sparks, however, left intact the stay of execution as his ruling will  likely be appealed to the court in New Orleans and possibly the Supreme  Court.

 A native of Hayward, Wisconsin, Panetti, 46, was sentenced to die by  lethal injection for the 1992 slayings of his estranged wife's parents.

 He was arrested after holding his estranged wife and their 3-year-old daughter hostage during a lengthy standoff with police following the  shootings. Sonja Alvarado testified that after shooting her parents at close  range with a rifle, Panetti turned the weapon on her and pulled the trigger,  but it jammed.

In the decade leading up to the slayings, Panetti was hospitalized for  mental illness 14 times. He wore cowboy attire during his trial, mimicking.

The Ringo Kid, the John Wayne character in the classic Western movie  <Stagecoach.>  He fired his lawyer and insisted on defending himself during  the two-week trial, although a judge named a lawyer to provide legal  explanations. During jury selection, he flipped a coin to decide whether a  potential juror should be seated on the panel. His initial witness list  sought to subpoena Jesus and Kennedy.

 Sparks conducted a two-day hearing on Panetti's mental state in September,  hearing testimony from expert witnesses on both sides.

Sparks said all the experts seemed to agree Panetti suffers from some form  of mental illness but disagreed on the diagnosis and whether it interfered  with his ability to understand why he was to be executed.

 While his lawyers say Panetti believes he is on death row for <preaching  the Gospel,> a psychiatrist and psychologist appointed by the state have  described him as uncooperative and interested only in <filibustering about  the Bible and the Lord.>  ^___  On the Net:  U.S. District Court:
  http://www.txwd.uscourts.gov/  Save Scott Panetti:
  http://www.rapnrockthedeathclock.com/index.html  Death row, Texas Department
  of Criminal Justice http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/deathrow.htm