Lawyers: Fla. man is ill, shouldn't be executed

[alp227]

Last edited Sun Aug 4, 2013, 01:15 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: AP

A lawyer for a mass murderer who is scheduled to die by lethal injection is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the execution because of his client's history of mental illness.

John Errol Ferguson is set for execution at the Florida State Prison on Monday.

Lawyer Christopher Handman says at least nine state psychiatrists have ruled over the years that Ferguson is mentally ill. Most of those evaluations came when Ferguson was in a state mental hospital in the 1970s.

Read more: http://www.wfla.com/story/23036577/lawyers-fla-man-is-ill-shouldnt-be-executed

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See also:

Florida To Execute Severely Mentally Ill Man Monday, Unless U.S. Supreme Court Says Otherwise - analysis by Think Progress, 8/2

Federal court rejects appeal by Miami mass killer John Ferguson - Miami Herald, 5/22

Death Row inmate John Ferguson spared in late night legal scramble - Miami Herald, 10/24/12

Won't it be a travesty in Florida where this man is unconstitutionally executed, but Casey Anthony and George Zimmerman are free and alive?

[msanthrope]

1. This is a pretty interesting case. Florida is saying he can be executed because although he

does not understand his execution rationally--he understands it intellectually.

He has a high IQ, but I understand he's paranoid schizophrenic.

[kestrel91316]

3. Executing paranoid schizophrenics for crimes they commit when

delusional is, IMHO, a crime against humanity and NO BETTER THAN shooting a dog because it bites someone because it's in terrible pain.

Sick, sick, sick.

[msanthrope]

4. I don't disagree...but you have a pretty interesting argument that Florida is trying to push. nt

[AtheistCrusader]

2. Barbaric, stone age revenge punishment.

What he did was wrong, no doubt. But there has to be a better solution.

[freshwest]

5. I have questions based on the Guardian version of this story:

John Errol Ferguson execution stopped again



Ferguson was convicted of shooting eight bound and blindfolded people in south Florida in 1977, then killing a teenage couple months later in 1978 after they left a church event to get some ice cream. He had previously been ruled mentally competent to be executed and over recent days federal judges in Florida, Georgia and Washington have wrestled with his appeals.

The execution had been scheduled after the Florida supreme court this month upheld a lower court ruling based on testimony by a panel of psychiatrists appointed by the state governor, Rick Scott. The state justices wrote that "Ferguson understands what is taking place and why".

The latest ruling from the federal appeals court said it would explore whether the Florida supreme court's decision was an "unreasonable determination of the facts" based on Ferguson's documented history of mental illness.

His lawyers have argued that Ferguson lacks rational understanding, because he suffers from delusions and believes God is preparing him to return to Earth after his execution to save the US from a communist plot.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/24/john-errol-ferguson-execution-stopped/print

...federal judges in Florida, Georgia and Washington have wrestled with his appeals...

I thought these appeals courts were regional. Why a judge from Washington state on this review board?

...The state justices wrote that "Ferguson understands what is taking place and why"...

Really? Look at what he believes will happen after he's dead:

...he suffers from delusions and believes God is preparing him to return to Earth after his execution to save the US from a communist plot...

The article doesn't go into something that might be taken into account. They say he was competent 30+ years ago.

Did he understand what he was doing when he did the killings, then went off the deep end in the last quarter century of being on Death Row - and if so, doesn't that make him not eligible for execution in some way?

And I don't trust anyone hired by Voldemort to assess him. Why would they bother to execute him after all this time. Is it political or economic?

If the appeal wins, is a person sentenced to death instead of life in prison going to be released? Is that why all the pig-headedness over these cases, that there is no back up plan in place?

It seems you can't ask for both sentences in case one is overturned, like giving a jury multiple choices to decide on several verdicts, like murder, manslaughter, negligent homocide, etc.

This is a problem with the death penalty, above and beyond discrimination, the chance for corruption or errors, from this all or nothing approach. I wish there was a verdict that read like 'Don't let this person loose again.'

Just some questions that this made me think about. TIA to anyone who has an opinion or expertise on this kind of thing.

[jb5150]

6. Him (and his buddies)

killed 6 people .... And just missed killing a 7th.

[BlueJazz]

7. People in the news and wealthy persons of all types have done crimes and are doing crimes..

...every day that are as bad and even far worse than Mr. John Ferguson.

[BlueJazz]

9. You know lots (or should I say "Know Of") people who murder people.

They just do it a slower way. Ever read articles on what severe daily stress does to the human body?
Yep...shortens the body's life.
Ever read where banks or con artists have taken people's money as "Investments" and almost totally ripped them off?
(Think Bernie)
Those people who were ripped off or the people who work for the Waltons are stressed hard every day and according to scientific knowledge will lead shorter lives.

So what's worse....Causing millions of people to have shorter lives...maybe 5-10 years shorter...or killing 7 people now.

My answer is: I don't know, but I do know that the Waltons or the "Bernies" or any of the other pricks and crooks are not going to the electric chair.

[Jackpine Radical]

15. How about the Ford executives who did a cost-benefit analysis

of retro-fixing the Pinto (which was essentially a Molotov cocktail disguised as a car) and concluded that it would be cheaper to fight the wrongful death lawsuits in court than to recall & retrofix each car at a cost of $14 per car? I'm not sure how many people died after that decision was made, but the number was substantially greater than zero.

[Eleanors38]

10. I oppose the death penalty. And I content with this...

psycho warehoused til death in Raiford where he can use a dull pencil and cheap pulp paper to rationalize murdering so many in the name of anti-communism.

[BlueJazz]

11. Oh...He must be locked away but what of the other ones..

[Eleanors38]

13. Who are the other ones? Other prisoners deserve

Security and life, though I am askance with solitary confinement.

I support significant sentences for dangerous law-breakers of any sort, and that includes fraud that substantially harms others.

[BlueJazz]

14. My Post # 9 expresses my feelings.

[heaven05]

12. oh

I'd be surprised if Florida waived HIS execution. although the question is: why did he kill all those people. Mental illness or just plain evil?