The scheduled execution Alabama Death Row inmate David Lee Roberts will not go forward next week as the state waits for the completion of a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation
The planned execution of an Alabama death row prisoner will be postponed next week as the state awaits the completion of a court-mandated psychiatric assessment.
Last month, a judge halted the August 21 execution of David Lee Roberts pending a mental evaluation to determine if Roberts is mentally fit to be executed. The Alabama Department of Corrections announced Friday that the report won’t be finished by the scheduled execution date.
“As a result, the Department anticipates that the execution scheduled for August 21 will not occur on that date. Accordingly, the Department has halted all preparations for Mr. Roberts’ currently scheduled execution,” prison system officials stated in a press release. It comes after a Tennessee child killer’s pacemaker was turned off before his execution over fears it would restart his heart.
Roberts, 59, was set to be executed next week using nitrogen gas, a technique Alabama started employing last year. He has been on death row since being found guilty of murdering Annetra Jones in 1992.
Legal representatives for Roberts contended that his death sentence should be put on hold due to serious mental illness. Roberts has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, experiences hears voices and suffers from delusions, they stated in a court document.
He also recently tried to burn tattoos off his arm and leg because he believed they “are trying to control his thoughts,” his attorneys stated. In 1992, Roberts was staying at the home of Jones’ boyfriend in Marion County.
Prosecutors revealed that on the afternoon of April 22, he arrived at the house, packed up his stuff, stole cash, and shot Jones three times in the head with a. 22 caliber rifle while she was sleeping on the couch.
He then set the house ablaze after dousing Jones’ body and the floor with a flammable liquid, according to prosecutors. Roberts was found guilty of capital murder by the jury, who voted 7-5 in favor of sentencing him to life imprisonment without parole.
However, a judge overruled this decision and sentenced him to death. Alabama no longer permits judges to override jury sentences in capital cases.
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So far this year, twenty-eight men have been executed by court order in the United States. At least nine other individuals across seven states are slated for execution this year.
The number of executions carried out this year surpasses the 25 conducted last year and in 2018. This is the highest total since 2015, when 28 people were executed.
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