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Some judge somewhere declared this guy competent to stand trial

Andre Thomas, condemned to death row after he killed his wife and children and carved their hearts out, in 2004, then plucked out his own eye while he was awaiting his own capital murder trial. Even so, the judge declared him competent and this fall the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his death sentence. But before the state could carry it out, while alone in his cell, last month Thomas plucked out the other eye and, apparently, ate it - I kid you not!I've known for some time that the standards for both competency to stand trial and competency to be executed can be shockingly low, though I've never completely understood the ins and outs of what goes into either determination. Indeed, I know so little about the legal and psychological debates swirling around such issues I hardly know where to begin analyzing such an astonishing story...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on January 09, 2009 (boomark / email).