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TEXAS DEATH ROW INMATE'S SENTENCE REDUCED TO LIFE Court finds Daniel Plata is not eligible for execution because of retardation http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/5461695.html
Links to recent news coverage of lethal injection developments: Texas Ruling Signals Halt to Executions Indefinitely
The New York Times
Ruling Could Halt Texas Executions
The Austin American-Statesman
U.S. SUPREME COURT SAYS THAT TEXAS MAY NOT EXECUTE SEVERELY MENTALLY ILL MAN REVERSES DECISION ALLOWING EXECUTION OF SCHIZOPHRENIC MAN WHO REPRESENTED HIMSELF AT TRIAL WEARING PURPLE COWBOY COSTUME Austin, Texas - Texas may not execute a severely mentally ill man who believes his execution would be the result of a satanic conspiracy to prevent him from preaching the Gospels of Jesus rather than for murdering his wife's parents, the U.S. Supreme Court said today. Scott Louis Panetti, 49, was allowed to represent himself at his capital murder trial in 1995, despite having been involuntarily committed to mental hospitals over a dozen times in the years leading up to the crime. Mr. Panetti defended himself dressed in a purple cowboy outfit and wanted to subpoena John F. Kennedy, the Pope, and Jesus.
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