WASHINGTON, 07 NOV - La Corte Suprema degli Stati Uniti ha concesso in extremis una sospensione dell'esecuzione di un assassino schizofrenico la cui vicenda ripropone il problema della pena di morte per gli handicappati mentali.

   La Corte, accogliendo una mozione della difesa, ha dato agli avvocati del condannato a morte, James Colburn, 90 giorni di tempo per presentare un nuovo appello.

   Colburn, 42 anni, stava gia' per ricevere l'iniezione letale nella prigione di Huntsville, nel Texas, quando e' giunta notizia della sospensione ordinata dalla Corte Suprema.

   La condanna a morte di Colburn si riferisce all'omicidio di Peggy Murphy, 55 anni, uccisa il 26 giugno 1994 dopo un tentativo di stupro. L'uomo disse di avere ucciso perche' voleva tornare in prigione: afflitto da schizofrenia paranoide da quando aveva 14 anni, era stato ricoverato almeno due volte in ospedali pschiatrici e aveva numerosi precedenti penali.  

Supreme Court Grants Stay to Mentally Ill Texas Man

    More than two hours after the originally scheduled time for the November 6th execution of Texas death row inmate James Colburn, the United States Supreme Court issued a stay of execution to allow attorneys time to request a full hearing. Lawyers for Colburn assert that his severe mental illness rendered him incapable of comprehending the proceedings against him or the reasons for his execution. Some of Colburn's trial jurors, including the foreman, have filed affidavits supporting the defense's claim. (Washington Post, November 7, 2002).

 Supreme Court Blocks Execution of Texas Man

Case Raises Questions About Issuing Death Sentence for Mentally Ill Defendants

 Convicted murderer James Colburn had requested execution in Texas, but the U.S. Supreme Court decided shortly before he was to die last night to grant a reprieve. (Texas Department Of Criminal Justice)

 By Lee Hockstader

November 7, 2002

AUSTIN, The Supreme Court granted a last-minute reprieve tonight to a convicted murderer in Texas who was to receive a lethal injection in the death chamber despite his severe mental illness.

 The stay of execution, issued at 9:26 p.m. in Washington, at first delayed and then blocked the scheduled 7 p.m. execution of James Colburn.

 Prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed he was deeply deranged before and after he murdered Peggy Murphy in 1994 by strangling and stabbing her.

 Lawyers for Colburn, 42, said his severe mental illness rendered him incapable of comprehending the proceedings against him or the reasons for his imminent execution. The court is now likely to await arguments from both sides on the case, a process that could take several months.

 "I'd like to hope the court was seriously concerned about the lack of due process in the state court for determining [Colburn's] competency to be executed," said Greg Wiercioch of the Texas Defenders Service, a death-penalty law firm on Colburn's defense team. "We have clear evidence James Colburn has some serious mental health problems, and he's had them for 30 years."

 Colburn's story is in some ways typical of the descent of the mentally ill into crime and violence, and the inadequacy of public institutions, mental health professionals and law enforcement officers to address their problems or protect their victims. Although the Supreme Court this year prohibited executions of the mentally retarded, the ban does not apply to mentally ill individuals.

 In Colburn's case, his IQ was below average but not so low as to qualify him as retarded. But no one disputes that he was deeply sick, beset by inner voices, hallucinations and bizarre ideas.

 Colburn had been a menace to himself and others for years before he lured Murphy to his apartment in the town of Conroe, Tex., north of Houston. He tried to rape her, and then strangled her and stabbed her in the throat. He told a neighbor about the murder, confessed the crime to authorities and informed his lawyers that he wanted the death penalty.

 Prosecutors do not dispute that Colburn was sick, but that is no bar to execution, they say. Born on Leap Day in 1960, Colburn flunked out of ninth grade and was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic as a teenager. He was raped while hitchhiking at the age of 16 or 17, drank and used drugs heavily, and tried repeatedly to commit suicide while in and out of mental health institutions and crisis centers, where he often sought help.

 Starting at the age of 20, Colburn spent years in prison and was convicted for an array of offenses, including armed robbery, burglary and arson. Some psychiatrists warned that he might pose a danger to society if not properly treated.

 After the murder, he told his lawyers and investigators he felt most secure in prison, and mentioned that his wish to return to incarceration was one reason he had killed Murphy.

 It was the voices and hallucinations that drove Colburn to distraction and to murder, he told his lawyers and psychologists.

 "All these voices want me to do is to get the lethal injection," he told a psychologist who examined him as he awaited trial in 1995. "They just want me to shut up. They just want me to kill people. They're never going to let up until I die."

 Colburn, prosecutors say, was perfectly aware of the crime he committed, understood the action was wrong and knew he was to be executed for that crime.

 "He's never been found incompetent, and no one's ever said he was insane under the Texas standard at the time that he killed," said Gail McConnell, the prosecutor in Montgomery County, north of Houston, who handled Colburn's appeals.

 "He was able to tell [psychologists] who he killed. He knew that he would not live to see Thanksgiving and Christmas. He'd engaged a spiritual adviser and gave away his property. He understood he was to be executed and why."

 Colburn's lawyers say the execution would have been senseless.

 "It will not deter anyone in similar circumstances," said James Rytting, one of Colburn's appeals lawyers. "And it serves no retributive purpose because Mr. Colburn was mentally ill and incapable of monitoring his conduct. He was actively psychotic at the time of the death" of Peggy Murphy.

 At his trial in 1995, Colburn repeatedly dozed in his seat, according to his lawyers and court records. When he was awake, he showed little emotion, an attitude induced by the drugs with which he was treated, his lawyers said. His lawyers failed to convince the jury that Colburn had killed in a moment of insanity.

 "He would sit next to me and we'd have to shake him periodically, that kind of thing," said Jerald Crow, one of his defense lawyers.

 However, Crow said Colburn was aware of what was happening. After initially refusing to talk to his lawyers because they declined to ask for the death sentence on his behalf, Colburn was able to help in his defense, Crow said.

 After the trial, some jurors expressed regret at the sentence. Mark Mullins, the foreman, said in an affidavit that during deliberations the jury asked the judge when Colburn would be eligible for parole if he were to receive a life sentence. When the judge instructed the jury not to consider the question of parole, that pushed jurors toward meting out a death sentence, Mullins said.

 Under Texas law, Colburn would have had to serve at least 40 years of a life sentence before being eligible for parole.

 Another juror, Kimberly Queener, said in an affidavit that she was unaware of the extent of Colburn's mental illness because the defense had failed to explain it. As a result, she said, she was "horrified" by Colburn's demeanor in the courtroom, and in his videotaped confession, where he appeared "uncaring."

 "I had no idea that one of the most common, long-term effects of schizophrenia is a decrease in the person's ability to respond emotionally," she said.

 Colburn's impending execution appeared to ruffle few feathers in Texas, where the death penalty is widely supported and subject to little public debate. About half the executions in the United States this year have taken place in Texas.

 "I'm going to be honest with you," said Mirah Fielden, Murphy's sister, in a telephone interview today. "A couple of hours the day that it happened, I prayed . . . that God would put him somewhere where he could never hurt another person."