Judge stays execution to evaluate if Alabama inmate is competent

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A state judge has stayed an upcoming execution in Alabama to evaluate whether the man is too mentally ill to be put to death.

The judge temporarily stayed the Aug. 21 execution of David Lee Roberts until it can be established whether he has a “rational understanding” of what is to happen to him.

“Or similarly put, the issue is whether the petitioner’s concept of reality is so impaired that he cannot grasp the execution’s meaning and the purpose or the link between his crime and its punishment,” Marion County Circuit Judge Talmage Lee Carter wrote in the July 10 order.

Carter said the execution will be on hold until a report from the Alabama Department of Mental Health is finished. It is not immediately clear how long that will take.

Roberts was convicted of killing Annetra Jones in 1992 by shooting her in the head. His execution was scheduled to be carried out by nitrogen gas, a method Alabama began using last year.

Attorneys representing Roberts argue that his death sentence should be suspended due to severe illness. Roberts has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis, hears voices and is delusional, they said in a court filing. He also recently attempted to burn tattoos off his arm and leg because he believed they “are trying to control his thoughts,” his lawyers said.

“This evidence demonstrates Mr. Roberts is incompetent to be executed because his delusions prevent him from having a factual or rational understanding of the reason,” they said.

The Alabama attorney general’s office is not appealing the stay. The state asked that the competency evaluation by expedited.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states cannot execute prisoners who are insane and do not understand their impending execution and the reasons for it. However state law does not provide a clear standard on what courts must find in determining someone’s competency to be executed.

In 1992, Roberts, now 59, was a houseguest at Jones’ boyfriend’s home in Marion County. Prosecutors said that on the afternoon of April 22, he came to the home, packed his belongings, stole money and shot Jones three times in the head with a .22 caliber rifle while she slept on the couch. He then set the house on fire after dousing Jones’ body and the floor with a flammable liquid, prosecutors said.

Jurors convicted Roberts of capital murder and voted 7-5 to recommend that he receive life in prison without parole. A judge overrode that and sentenced him to death. Alabama no longer allows judges to override jury sentences in capital cases.