Texas - The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay Wednesday morning for mentally ill death row inmate Scott Louis Panetti, hours before he was scheduled to be executed.
In a one paragraph order, the court issued the stay “pending further order of the court to allow us to fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issue in this matter. An order setting a briefing schedule and oral argument will follow.”
Panetti, 56, was convicted in 1995 of shooting to death his parents-in-law in 1992. Diagnosed as schizophrenic in 1978, he represented himself at his capital murder trial and occasionally spoke as an alter-ego named Sgt.Ranahan Ironhose, who he said committed the murders. He also spent the trial dressed as a cowboy and attempted to subpoena John F. Kennedy and Jesus Christ.
It took jurors 90 minutes to determine he was guilty of slaying Jose and Amanda Alvarado in their Fredericksburg home, both of whom were shot in the chest with a .30-06 hunting rifle in front of their daughter and granddaughter. The same panel deliberated for two hours before determining his sentence would be death.
In 1995, life without parole was not a sentencing option for capital murder. Jurors could pick only between execution or life in prison, but with parole a possibility after 35 years. More
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