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Friday, June 29, 2007

Ind. Decisions - More on U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Panetti issued

In this ILB entry on the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling yesterday in Panetti v. Quarterman (née Drake), the ILB quoted the Jan. 17th order of our Supreme Court staying the pending execution of Norman Timberlake based on the SCOTUS grant of cert in the Texas Panetti case and the likelihood that the high court "may soon revisit and address the application of the Eighth Amendment to claims that mental illness bars execution."

Today in a lengthy story in the Louisville Courier Journal, Lesley Stedman Weidenbener looks at the implications of the Panetti ruling for Norman Timberlake. Some quotes:

[Gary Secrest, the Indiana Attorney General's section chief for appeals and capital cases] and Timberlake's lawyer yesterday had different views on the Panetti ruling's impact.

"It's our belief that Norman is as sick if not sicker" than the defendant in the Texas case, said Timberlake's attorney, Brent Westerfeld.

And Paula Sites, assistant director of the Indiana Public Defender Council, said the U.S. Supreme Court's decision is a good one for Timberlake because it means he'll likely be entitled to a hearing to determine whether he is too delusional to understand why he's being executed.

But Secrest said the high court's decision simply makes clear that Indiana already applies the correct standard for determining whether a defendant is so mentally ill that the death penalty would be unconstitutional. * * *

Yesterday's ruling did not establish new guidelines for courts to use in determining whether a defendant's mental illness makes the death penalty unconstitutional.

"They don't give a short, catchy new standard," said Andrea Keilen, executive director of the Texas Defender Service. But the court said "you have to consider someone's severe mental illness as a factor in whether the person has a rational understanding and appreciates the connection between the crime and punishment."

According to a court-appointed psychiatrist, Timberlake "believes that he is the subject of torture by a computer-driven machine operated by prison officials 24 hours a day, seven days a week." However, Timberlake also retains the "capacity to understand that he is about to be executed and why," the psychiatrist said.

The latter is why the attorney general's office believes "it's pretty clear" that the Texas decision will allow Timberlake's death sentence to stand, Secrest said.

But Westerfeld said, "Norman believes he's being executed because he's trying to prove the government" is using the computer-driven machine to torture him. "He's been thoroughly convinced that machine exists and he's being killed because he's been trying to prove that for a number of years now."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 29, 2007 08:57 AM
Posted to Indiana Decisions