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Lawyers for condemned inmate Edwin Hart Turner say it would be cruel and unusual punishment to execute someone who is mentaly ill.
Edwin Hart Turner is no stranger to mental illness.
According to his lawyer and acquaintances, his grandmother and great-grandmother were committed to state hospitals. His mother attempted suicide twice. His father was killed in a dynamite explosion that some believe was a suicide.
At age 18, Turner tried to kill himself with a rifle but the barrel of the weapon slipped just enough to spare his life; the bullet that blasted through his face left him permanently disfigured. He was hospitalized five years later when he tried to slit his wrists in another suicide attempt.
So when Turner robbed a gas station near Carrolton, Miss., early on Dec. 13, 1995, and fatally shot a clerk in the face and a customer in the head, his lawyers say, it’s almost certain that he was – and still is – mentally unbalanced.
For that reason, says Turner’s attorney, Jim Craig of the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center, Turner should not be put to death.
Turner’s accomplice, Paul Murrell Stewart, pleaded guilty to capital murder and was sentenced to life without parole. Turner was convicted at trial and sentenced to death by lethal injection.
In what he hopes will be a precedent-setting case, Craig is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court and to Mississippi’s new governor, Phil Bryant, to halt the scheduled Feb. 8 execution of the 38-year-old Turner.
“The Supreme Court has not decided the question of whether a prisoner with a severe mental disorder or disability which significantly impairs that person’s ability to rationally process information, to make reasonable judgments and to control their impulses, whether people in that category can be executed,” Craig told msnbc.com in a telephone interview Thursday.
“So we’re asking the Supreme Court to establish that it would be contrary to consensus of moral values, that it would be cruel and unusual punishment, to execute someone with severe mental illness.”
The Supreme Court in 2002 banned the execution of mentally retarded criminals. In 2005, justices ruled that it was also unconstitutional to put to death juvenile criminals. But the circumstances regarding the execution of inmates who are mentally ill - but not insane - are less clear-cut, though previous high court rulings have held that the mere presence of mental illness doesn’t necessarily exempt someone from execution.
Craig said he will also ask a federal judge on Friday to order the state to put the execution on hold so Turner can get a mental exam, including a modern type of neuroimaging scan that wasn’t available in 1995. Craig said he thinks the so-called “functional MRI” scan will show that the portion of Turner’s brain “that controls conduct that works for everyone else in this country just doesn’t work for him.”
“It’s like expecting someone with a broken arm to quarterback the Super Bowl,” Craig said. “It’s just not fair.”
Other rights groups are also backing Turner's cause.
“We’ve come a long way in our understanding of mental illness and the deep and terrible pain it inflicts on sufferers – but not far enough, at least not in Mississippi,” wrote Denny LeBoeuf, the American Civil Liberties Union's Capital Punishment Project director, in a blog post titled "Too Crazy to Kill."
“Most mentally ill people are not violent. Those who are should not be executed."
Gov. Bryant’s office and Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood’s office did not immediately return telephone calls Thursday from msnbc.com for comment.
On Wednesday, Hood told The Associated Press that Turner has been evaluated numerous times in the past.
"He has raised the issue of mental health problems at every level and has been denied relief at every turn. We argue that his mental health claims have been fully addressed, and that this present action is nothing more than an attempt to re-litigate a claim that has been properly adjudicated at every turn," Hood said, according to the AP.
Earlier, in asking the state to set the Feb. 8 execution date, Hood said in a press release that Turner has exhausted his state and federal appeals. “These crimes were brutal and nothing short of cowardly,” he said.
Ann Dugger, executive director of the Justice Coalition, a victims' advocacy group, said mental illness in and of itself is not a reason to rule out execution.
"What's cruel and unusual is that a perpetrator would have taken the life of someone else and murdered him," she said.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News
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Put him out of his misery already. He ain't gonna get better and lives his life just "suffering" anyways...
Why should we continue to feed him? If you don't want to flip the switch on this waste, then stop feeding him and let nature take its course.
Texas would of already killed him....
A nation that executes it's mentally illis a nation of barbarians. Virtually no nation on earth executes prisoners diagnosed with a significant mental illness. Louisiana #1 in homicides and bottom 5 in mental healthcare, Texas another state which executes it's mentally ill ranks last in mental healthcare. Even nations everyones list of rogue nations do not execute those diagnosed as mentally ill. Getting that diagnosis may be next to impossible but it is the law. We are becoming a nation whose actions are based solely on vengeance and ignorant as to the rule of law.
jkh
some have good comments some not os good or even crazy,and mine may be crazy also but here goes.
Vengence is mine sayeth the lord,but in a world like ours there has to be a common law God can't help us unless we help our selfs there is also the old an eye for an eye.It looks like he was well enough to get a gun load it go to the store rob it kill two people. oru laws say he should die so he should die.Looks like they went at this crazy stuff at first trial or not ,it made no differance to jury who convicted him. Let the man die in peace and maby God will save his soul,because God is the final judge anyway.
Really, he killed two people. I don't care if he is mentally unstable or not. He knew what he was doing (robbing a store) was against the law. He doesn't want to be alive anyways. Why make tax payers pay for this man to live in prison. It's not like it was an accident!
Without reading the rest of the comments... but wouldn't killing him by lethal injection just do what he's tried doing to himself before?? Seriously, no one would let him kill himself so he had to kill 2 people in order to plead guilty and be given a death sentence so he could just die!! I say don't kill him and let him sit in jail for the rest of his life thinking about how miserable his life was and is. I think it's fair punishment for someone who truly wants to die. Also, mentally ill... doesn't always mean one can't comprehend what's going on around them and I highly doubt this guy is clueless unless drugged.
Let him go, if he is truly mentally ill he will be in a better place.
hay Mr. Hayes just a little note.All of islim stone to death there mental ones the last I checked and there sleep around women,Stoned to death, but I could be wrong call obama he can tell you.
Miers...WTF does ISLAM have to do with this, or was that the only way you could throw in a shot about Obama?
What a considerate society: kill or euthanize abandoned, uncared for, mistreated and abused animals who did NOT ONE THING WRONG ....
Or shot a Tiger or Bear which has had its habitat raped...
by homosapien overpopulation
or the zoo animals released in PA.
Sterilize ZOO animals: but welcome illegals for auto-welfare citizenship from womb to tomb for heathen breeding via sperm donor exponentials on the backs of already overburdened US Citizens of Generations as US Taxpayers...
And by all means let a psycho live and breathe...
Wait until there are no choices and think about your high and might self-elevation to gods...when
State sanctioned killing is wrong. That's my firm belief. Except in self defense, thats everyones right. But violence should always be avoided until it no longer can be. It should never be done for convenience or because its cheaper. I think killing, no matter our reason, its no better then the reasons this guy killed for. So killing him makes us no better then he is. Makes us murderers too. Killing for revenge, killing to punish, killing to protect, its all the same reasons. Its still killing.
That said, I dont think this guy is necessarily insane. I think he feels sorry for himself, so he wants to commit suicide. Mad at the world for not letting him die.. He should rot in a cell for the rest of his miserable days. Hes an obvious danger to society, and can never be let out again.
What does it take in this country?! The punishment should fit the CRIME, not the CRIMINAL. He killed 2 people in cold blood! There shouldn't be forgiveness because the perp doesn't know any better--the victims are still dead by his deed. He obviously doesn't want to be among the living anyway!!!
BS, the man should be put to death like any other person who commits murder. Everytime the spare the life of someone like this it just leaves the door open for more people to appeal. Stop hugging people and hold them responsible. If they are that crazy then why was he even allowed to walk the streets. I see the so called people with mental issues using their so called mental disability as an excuse to get away with everything including murder. Maybe if we start holding everyone accountable they will also get the picture. We hold people who kill while drunk accountable and they aren't in their right mind even though temporary. Get onboard people. Just my thoughts.
More of a reason to save him from more misery… The f***ing
liberal lawyers who would do anything to be in the limelight should be next. I
always ask, “WHAT ABOUT THE VICTIMS”?
Mentally unstable or not, he needs to be put down. He clearly wants to die and he will never be anything but a burden to taxpayers..OFF HIM NOW!
People stating "if god disfigured some of you how funny would you think it is..." Well, he disfigured himself. I don't laugh at people who have handicaps or disfigurations. However, this guy not only did it to himself, but he killed innocent victims later in his violent the process. Sorry you had a bad family life, dude. But why should innocent people have to pay for your unfortunate situation and why should people push the sympathy card out to you? If kids bullied me on the playground and my dad consistently beat me at home, does it give me the rite to hurt others later in life? I wish he had been a better shot when he aimed at himself. others would have been saved. He wants out of the gene pool, and needs to be out of the gene pool.
These are the individuals that have no mercy on society (period). Off with the head...
No sympathy for murderers. Sorry... No wait. i am not sorry. No excuses. Put him to death.
I figure three days in the electric chair should cure him!!!
Lets see, he wants to die and tried to kill himself a few times. Parents are nuts and suicidal. He has victimized society over and over without any care for others. Should society execute a nut? Lay him on his back under the guilitine and let him watch death with both eyes open. This will result in the following; he gets his wish and able to watch it happen, no one else gets hurt by him ever again, society doesn't have to pay many millions of dollars to councel him and provide him a life in the nut house at an astronomical rate.
are you trying to say that he wouldn't know he is dead
The article doesn't mention a diagnosis. "Mentally ill" can mean a lot of things. Just because he has a history of attempted suicide, and parents that were ill (maybe) doesn't mean he is. He could just be a product of his up bringing. I want to know more about what's wrong with this fellow before I pass judgement either way. I do know that most states are cutting most assistance to mentally ill people in order to balance the budget. Then those same people wonder why (without medication) these people turn violent. There's always room in a prison, and not in a mental hospital. As a society, we are going to have to choose. Build more prisons, or spend about $100 a month treating mentally ill people. Do the math. At about $30 a day for prison stays vs $100 a month for assistance only a fool would deny the mentally ill help. But then again, most state legislatures are made up of fools.
If you have a family hstory of mental illness, you have a pretty good chance of suffering from it yourself.
If you know of this, then it is your responsibility to get the help you need to live with what you have.
I also believe that, if you have a friend or family member that shows signs of a possible mental problem, it is YOUR responsibility to help them get help.
bluepanther, that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. In the first place, you will not necessarily inherit a parent's illness. Even if BOTH parents are mentally ill, the odds are you won't be, as the genetics are very complex. In the second place, if you ARE mentally ill, you may very well not realize it as distorted thinking is the very nature of the illness. It's like an alcoholic in denial, only worse, because alcoholics are still sober a good bit of the time and can't help noticing the consequences of their behavior. In the third place, in most states there is very little a friend or relative can do if you refuse help.
Oom...sorry...I have the experience.
If you are taking the meds in the first place, then you know what they are for. But the problem comes from feeling good...feeling like you're cured, which was the problem with my dad...yet he went off of his meds because he felt this. He knew what he was doing, but it was a huge revolving mess...feel great? Don't need the meds anymore. Then start to feel manic...depressed...not those damn pils; besides, they made him feel wasted.
As for the help...maybe you can't do much past what that person wants, but at least you shouldn't ppretend you don't see it. How many stories ave we read about lately where someone did something, and those close to that person say they thought he or she was just upset, or they knew they were seeing a doctor, so why follow up? It's someone else's problem...
I feel bad for his victims, but bad for him as well, Edwin had the cards stacked against him. Why aren't most of you who are posting satisfied with a life in prison outcome? The man is sick and needs help. People still don't understand mental illness verses pure evil.
CityofHope21 - So much contradiction in a name but true to form in the sense you are probably young and dumb.
I am dissapointed I thought this was about the picture above the headline and thought they Must be talking about Mayor Bloomburg!!!!