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Grant of relief under Ford in Pennsylvania

By Karl R. Keys, Esq.

Long ago having gone crazy, a court today rules he is too crazed to be executed. George Banks, 66, is psychotic and unable to comprehend his sentence or participate in his defense, making him incompetent to be put to death, Judge Michael Conahan said. Banks, whose victims included five of his own children, “has a hopeless prognosis and will not improve to any acceptable degree,” the judge said. Defense experts testified at a hearing last month that Banks believes his sentence has been vacated by God or Jesus, that he is no longer under the threat of death, and that he is being held in prison as part of a conspiracy to get him to renounce his religious beliefs. Defense attorney Al Flora said Monday that prosecutors should stop their decades-long pursuit of the death penalty for Banks, saying it is no longer worth the time and expense...continue to full post

Full post as published by Capital Defense Weekly on September 08, 2008 (boomark / email).