Calif. Court Appoints Guardian for Condemned Man

 September 15, 2002

LOS ANGELES - The California Supreme Court has named a guardian for a death row inmate who thinks he has a computer in his head -- an unprecedented act that could stop his eventual execution, according to a media report on Sunday.

 The court quietly made the move in a closed conference this summer in the case of Jon Scott Dunkle, 41, the Los Angeles Times reported. It made the decision based on advice from a Superior Court judge who had been asked to determine Dunkle's mental state.

 A final determination of Dunkle's mental condition is critical, because the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled it is unconstitutional to execute the insane.

Dunkle, who also believes he has a telephone in his shoulder, was convicted of murdering of three boys. He was sentenced to death at his 1989 murder trial despite being repeatedly committed to a mental hospital.

 Two of Dunkle's victims were strangers, one a 12-year-old boy on his way home from soccer practice. Dunkle had befriended the family of the third victim, a 15-year-old boy. None of the victims was sexually assaulted.

 In March 2000, San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Judith Whitmer Kozloski told the California Supreme Court that Dunkle, who has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, was so ill he could not fully understand the nature of his legal appeals or assist his lawyers.

 The guardian can provide defense attorneys with access to Dunkle's medical and school records without his consent.

 His lawyers said naming a guardian could pave the way for similar appointments in cases where death row inmates are believed to be mentally ill.

 ``If a person is really crazy, he shouldn't be tried, let alone be convicted,'' Michael Dashjian, one of Dunkle's lawyers, told the Times. ``We certainly believe that Jon Dunkle never should have been tried.''