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Florida Department of Corrections via AP
John Errol Ferguson has been on Florida's death row for 34 years.
An 11th hour decision by a federal appeals court has blocked the scheduled execution of a mass killer convicted of eight slayings that jolted South Florida in the 1970s.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a last-minute request Tuesday night from attorneys for 64-year-old John Errol Ferguson, who has been on Florida's death row for 34 years. Ferguson's lawyers contend he should not be executed because he suffers from severe mental illness.
He was scheduled to die at 6 p.m. on Tuesday. His last meal, according to the Miami Herald, was a chicken country fried sandwich and sweet tea.
Florida officials immediately asked the U.S. Supreme Court to lift the stay. The justices earlier Tuesday turned aside another Ferguson appeal.
Ferguson was convicted of killing eight people in South Florida in 1977 and 1978, including a teenage couple, and was a prime suspect in another double slaying. He suffers from paranoid schizophrenia but has previously been ruled competent for execution.
His lawyers say he believes he is the "Prince of God," according to the Miami Herald, to bolster their case that he is too mentally ill to be executed.
Phil Sears / AP
Death penalty opponents join in a chant across from Florida State Prison in Raiford, Fla. on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that inmates who suffer from "mental retardation" are exempt from the death penalty. According to the high court:
Mentally retarded persons frequently know the difference between right and wrong and are competent to stand trial, but, by definition, they have diminished capacities to understand and process information, to communicate, to abstract from mistakes and learn from experience, to engage in logical reasoning, to control impulses, and to understand others’ reactions.
Their deficiencies do not warrant an exemption from criminal sanctions, but diminish their personal culpability.
NBC's Isolde Raftery contributed to this report.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Leave a Comment:
Wait, he's crazy but competent to be executed? What the hell does that mean? Fyi, mental retardation has nothing to do with paranoid schizoprenia.
Electric Chair. He is too incompetent to understand electricity. Do they still do that in Florida?
According to this, only if it's your preferred exit. They've had injection for a while.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_chair
I can't belive where our country is going. The man killed at least 8 people. I don't care if he's crazy or not. He should be put to death. But we'll keep him alive and feed him for ever and make sure he gets good medical care because we're crazy.
Am I to understand we have no schizoprenic executioners in this country to perform this task? Not one? This guy killed EIGHT people. Florida! dammit.
Isn't anyone who murders 8 people, by definition, crazy?
And even if he does have schizophrenia, doesn't that mean he's less likely to be rehabilitated and more likely to continue posing a danger to society?
Save the tax payers from supporting this thing. He was sane enough to know right from wrong. He was sane enough to be a mass murderer, he's sane enough to be executed for that crime. Giving someone a "free pass" to do whatever they wish because they have a low I.Q. or has a Mental Disorder is just plain stupid. FORCE them to take their medications until they are sane enough to be executed. If you take a life you give up your right to breath the air. They are a danger to society and should be permanently removed from that society.
Any person who would murder another human being has serious mental issues. We grant stays for "mental retardation" to easily these days, and ever @!$%#ed up mass murder can get away because he can say "oh its not my fault, I am naturally weird." If the aurora shooter gets off on having a mental handicap, I hope someone has the decency to finish him anyway.
It is shameful how long this battle has gone on over this one man's life, who took eight innocent. Our government has already invested so much money in a guilty bloodstained life when there are so many innocent lives these funds could have gone into helping to make safer,healthier, more educated and by far happier. It is a twisted world indeed when the criminals get an easier life then the poor.
Ironic, this is called death row. Usually people either get life or death, but after 34 years, wouldn't that make it just about both in this case? In the end, he is going to die, by man's hand or natural causes. So, does it ultimately matter ?
I am in favor of commuting his sentence to life in prison "if" he indeed does suffer from Schizophrenia where command auditory hallucinations can indeed direct one to kill others (though schizophrenics are generally more a threat to themselves than to others). I blame his treatment providers who were not vigilant enough 34 years ago, as well as the Justice System that waited this long to come to a decision, whether right or wrong, at taxpayer expense. In cases of Mental Retardation I am in favor of the death penalty only if the person understands the charges against him/her, recalls their actions, and can appreciate the consequences of their actions. Because mentally disabled people are no more violent than the general population, I place more blame with their treatment providers and people who were responsible for their care than those who committed the offense.
Mary Jones I am surprised we as a country still execute people. It is not a deterrent. It does not save money. In fact it costs more to execute some one than it does to house them for life. Executions were needed at one time historically for one valid reason. To protect society because there there were were no reliable prison systems in place. It was too temporary. It just is unnecessary in today's modern prison systems.
Right now in California they have a huge problem because of the financial cost involved in putting some one to death. The death penalty is barbaric and out dated. The odds are just too high that we have already executed innocent people and it just is not worth it. The money we spend on killing people would be better spent on education programs aimed at prevention.
this is why death row should speed up the process.soon theyll say hes to old to die.fn fla.
DakotaXile,
I think you're referring to the long stays on Death Row, as well as the constant (and often misused) appeals process for your contention that capital punishment is more expensive than housing an inmate indefinitely.
I know it's not this simple, but if we shorten the stay on death row, how is a lifetime of care for an inmate less expensive than a few IV bags and burial expenses?
As you can tell, I support the death penalty. I do listen--and respect--the other side of the argument.
But cost aside, death is generally accepted as the most severe of punishments. We reserve it for the most severe transgressions to our laws.
Incidentally, the one thing I do *not* respect are the ever-present protesters that brandish signs with the condemned's name. Where do I find the names of his eight victims? Nowhere, apparently.
And as for capital punishment not being a deterrent, I'm reminded of a one-frame editorial cartoon I once saw (I can't remember the source):
Condemned Man: "Capital punishment is *NOT* a deterrent."
Executioner: "I'll believe that when I see you again."
The cartoon may have been a bit crude, but it represents my feelings exactly. It's my opinion, for what it's worth.
The dude's lucky he wasn't in Texas. They execute crazies just for fun!
Idea - - don't executed the schizo side - - just the "normal" one!!
Well, my goodness. Finally some understanding from the courts of the way competence affects execution.
And, no John, mental retardation has nothing to do with paranoid schizophrenia. However, both have a great deal to do with competence, and competence is the issue.
Wake Up Doc..... The Scum Bag should be FRIED..... Capital Punishment means nothing unless carried out in a Timely Manner..... By the way no one in their right mind would kill someone much less 8 people....
Isn't it too late to carry it out "in a timely manner"? He's been on death row 34 years.
In the state of Florida they will NOT execute until all of the appeals efforts are exhausted which can take 10 15 20 yrs or more. Florida has the worst system concerning execution. Most people spend on averate 20 years on death row before they execute them
So that would make you not in your right mind?
Curious...Would you call for the execution of a sleep walker who killed someone?
OH guy, capital punishment means nothing. You got that part right. It is not a deterrent to crime.
What exactly is execution but killing someone? Really, you should think these things all the way through before you make a statement. One might think that you have mental health issues.
He was competent enough to kill.
He was competent enough to kill eight times and possibly more over a two year period.
No kidding.
One more needle...just put this dude down...
Why so you can save the $.0005 cents it would cost you personally to keep him locked up? Do you even live in Florida I wonder?
Personally, I think you sound like just another typical American who likes their justice more vindictive than just.
Culheath...This monster has been breathing 34 years longer than his victims. I don't care how little it costs me to keep him alive, he doesn't deserve to be.
I don't subscribe to the school of thought that his execution is contingent on his mental state. He killed eight people over nearly a two year span. That alone tells me he knew what he did was wrong and hid from authorities to avoid the consequences. That is competent. This freak didn't consider his victims, why should anyone consider him now?
Suthern Comfort,
Uh, so you are saying that murder is the act of a sane mind?
Cat Chick,
So you are saying that it is perfectly acceptable to execute the mentally ill when their crime was committed as a result of an illness over which they had no control?
Really? Really?
Uh...so we don't find ourselves acting like he did? I hope you can see the sardonic irony in saying we should kill him to show how much we feel that killing is wrong.
strange he was comptent to stand trial, but can not be executed, although he murdered many people, that was hedious???? looks like he is in for life, after 34 years on death row, seems that is what happening here??
The Guy has Multiple Personalities and it would be wrong to kill them all for what only one did.
Does this make any sense??
@warrren - No, but I like the way you're thinking!
Oh for crying out loud, look up paranoid schizophrenia and read up on it so you can make a reasonably educated comment on this kind of thing. Schizophrenia is absolutely not the same as multiple personality disorder. *facepalms*
Okay - so execute only the personality that was covicted of murder...LMAO
Roses are red, violets are blue.
I'm schizophrenic, and so am I.
Opinionated Smurf @
Honest it's got to be true cause I read it on the Internet !
Warren,
Dumb a$$, he is schizophrenic, not DID.
Which personality did they try ?
Mentally ill person with tendency to commit murder needs to be executed as quick as possible because it is a very dangerous metally sickness. There are mentally ill persons but they are not dangerous, instead they are very peaceful and they deserve to have full support from society.
Or just keep them on medication and locked up. Yes, it's a huge drain on resources but when someone with schizophrenia is having a psychotic episode the chances of them even remembering what they did during that time are slim to none.
It's too bad people aren't treated for their mental issues before they do harm or murder others. Any mental issue is awful without therapy and medication. Just wish they would be put more research and money into this as oppose to beautifying the country or pocketing money for personal gain.
I agree with you but at the same time there are laws in place to protect people and part of that protection includes letting them make their own decisions until they are no longer able to do that. One person I know with paranoid schizophrenia lived fine mainly on her own with assistance from her family and stayed on her medication for years. Then all of a sudden her illness worsened and she either wasn't being prescribed the correct medication or wasn't taking it (no one will ever know for sure) so she started going through a cycle of psychotic episode, hospitalization and stabilization, release, then a few months later the pattern would start fresh. After about four years the state stepped in and decided she was a danger to herself and declared her a ward of the state. Now she has a guardian and is on proper medication and living in a group home but it took several years for that to be able to happen.
he lived 30 years longer then his victims...how can he complain? why are the victims always overlooked? what has he returned to society in those 30 years?
The state of Florida is trying to give him "medication". The appeals court is the one denying this medication.
He has been on death row for 34 years, and has had his last meal but he still breaths, what is wrong with this picture?
The Supreme Court: "Mentally retarded persons frequently...." I thought the use of the word retarded was a no-no nowadays
I thought the use of the word retarded was a no-no nowadays
It's a no-no only for sister Sarah.
I understand the law but being on death row for 35 years whats the point of having the death penalty if they are not going to use it. I could see waiting ten years for appeals to go through but being on death row for 35 years....
whats the point...
The point is...a criminal in jail is a resource for our justice system to feed on. He provides employment for prison guards, judges and lawyers. If you hang him quick....well, where is the profit in that.
I am sorry this comment is not going to please most here. Killing is wrong no matter in whos name we do it in and especially when it comes to known medical and psychiatric disorders that are not a matter of choice for any of the parties. The murderer or the victims. Sorry, that would not satisfy your need for revenge and blood but it will not change the fact that the victims are tragically gone. Killing another person who is so obviously ill is not going to change anything except make you folks feel better???? It really makes you feel better? I understand your point but I had hoped as a society we were better than that and had come to some understanding about certain conditions that cause irrational behavior..oh and maybe operate the Christian principles we are taught in church??? Like an eye for an eye has been replaced with some compassion and understanding??? That does not mean release this man..he obviously is not fit for society. It does mean to separate him from society so he can not harm anyone else. But killing him does nothing to change the crime or do anything for the victims and certainly only makes you feel better that you have played God. It is a disgrace and just plain wrong.
How nice. Nobody really cares about this multiple murderer. Fry him.
He's lucky he wasn't in Texas. They'll execute anybody; children, the retarded, doesn't matter.
It's amazing that the State of Florida wants to execute "The Prince of God"!! By definition, a paranoid schizophrenic is not competent. In this country, we should not be executing an obviously mentally ill person! Protect society by keeping him separate from society.
He's already cost too much. Toast his lame butt off this planet and make room on death row for another subhuman murderer.
This is why California has a ballot measure this year to do away with the death penalty. Before all you rabid "fry-em" folks out there (Southeners-they'll fry anything!!) start screaming about "libtards in California", this measure is all about economics and not about bleeding hearts or any other body parts, The death penalty is so ridden with appeals, etc, that it costs way more to sentence someone to death than it does to incarcerate them forever. If the measure passes, maybe a few of the bucks saved can be rolled back into California's mental health system.
He committed these crimes in 1977, after extensive psychiatric assessment and treatment. Perhaps we need to blame the system that released this man. A much more complete description of this matter was presented in the Miami Herald on 10/13/2012:
His madness was not some recent, feigned malady, contrived during his 34 years on death row to keep him out of the death chamber. Court records document that Ferguson was diagnosed back in 1965 with “visual hallucinations.” After a series of felony arrests, and a gunshot wound to the head, he was trucked off to state mental institutions in 1971, where a psychiatrist decided he was a paranoid schizophrenic with “severely damaged ability to distinguish right from wrong.” Another doctor that year recommended a long commitment in a mental hospital rather than bother with a criminal trial, given that Ferguson suffered “from a major mental disorder which prevents him from aiding counsel.”
In 1973, he had “deteriorated to a psychotic state.” In 1974, he was found “grossly psychotic.” And yet another doctor said Ferguson “did not know right from wrong nor the nature and consequences of his acts.” And in 1975, a court-appointed doctor echoed that finding, adding “The degree of irrationality coupled with a rather impulsive, explosive and aggressive nature makes him a rather dangerous person both to himself and to others.” Another declared Ferguson a “paranoidally disturbed person with many somatic delusions and many ideas of a rather bizarre and persecutory nature.”
And finally a diagnosis in 1975 came with a warning that reads, in retrospect, like prophecy. “He has a long-standing, severe illness which will most likely require long-term inpatient hospitalization. This man is dangerous and cannot be released under any circumstances.
Yet, in an act of bureaucratic insanity, less than a year later Ferguson was released from state custody, this diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic who was delusional and impulsive and explosive and aggressive and dangerous.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/10/13/3049006/nothing-good-about-execution-of.html?storylink=digger-topic#storylink=cpy
Shoulda killed him then.
Revenge is the naked idol of the worship of a semi-barbarous age.
Murder at the hands of the state is still murder, in your name.
OK. Put my name on it.
Good one Mario 69!!! I laughed at that one.
All the state of Florida wants to do is give him some nice "medicine" to cure his mental illness.
*SMDH* If he's mentally ill and has killed people, then he is unfit for society and he should just be executed. There is NO way he is ever going to be fit to live in society, so no chance at rehabilitation. Kil him and move on to the next person. Stop wasting tax payers money on someone who can't be saved
Guys been on death row for over 30 years, the original plan to execute him obviously didn't save tax payer money. also perhaps you didn't catch the recent news, mental disorders like schizophrenia can be treated. and when it comes to "rehabilitation" we aren't talking about a guy who 24/7 believes it's OK to kill people, does this man even need to be rehabilitated? or does he already realize the gravity of what he did?
S. Hernandez- Prison is not about rehabilitation or "saving" It's about keeping dangereous people away from society. You want rehab-go to a hospital (you could be helped by some cognitive exercises), you want salvation, try a church. A prison is neither.
Just kill the guilty half!!!
I am saddened that the "courts" have denied this man his full rights!
If he was competent enough to kill that many people then he is competent enough to accept the consequences of his actions.
To spend 34 years on death row is an absolute travesty and denial of justice.
But then the courts aren't concerned about the other side, those who were denied their rights to live.
Your assuming that a man with a mental disability prone to fits of irrationality, to have rationally committed a crime and rationally understand at the commission of the crime, what he will be responsible for.
James:
What difference does it make? The victims are DEAD- they did not have any voice or decision. Where is the justice for them? It is so easy to be compassionate and liberal, as long as you don't have any of your family lying on the ground dead.
I can say from personal experience with being the survivor of crime committed by a schizophrenic that it does make you angry, very angry and you may want to kill them for a long time. It's not just for the crime but that it makes you crazy and then you get subjected to even more anger and even more personal violation when they do things like try to hang themselves afterward. It makes you as ill as they are and you start acting just as ill. Then you wake up one day and realize it's all just the illness. Killing them doesn't end the illness. It just continues it. Alot of that anger isn't even really that you want them dead, but you just want it to end and who else do you get angry with ?
I know no other way to say it, but it's just not right to a kill a dog who's being beaten repeatedly. It solves nothing.
Come on Luci-1356914, Revenge is sweet regardless of the consequences . Some things are just worth it.
You know what an eye for an eye means. It means here let me show you what I see and then maybe you can make an informed decision. There is no justice in blindness. It just continues more blindness. Maybe finding out why he thinks he's the prince of God would give more lasting results.
I will concede that flyswatters are for spiders, flies and cockroaches and nazi's make great target practice. You ever had the not so pleasurable experience of knowing how nazi's will treat even their own family members ? It's so disgusting I don't even know where to begin.
"Every time I wake up it just gets worse." --- Ripley
If there is one thing that the US has an excess of , it is Poor, Pathtic murderers who are just misunderstood! He did he crime, now do the fryin'. Why are we wasting money keeping an insane murderer alive for 34 years? Time for justice for the victims, instead of the babbling about the poor murderer.
Even if he's bat-shiz crazy, he cannot ever be let loose on society. Sorry, but there are cases where people, because they are SO DANGEROUS to the rest of us, cannot be allowed to live.
There are far more people in prison, than should be. Some are innocent, and their cases look at, again. But for those who are guilty, clearly guilty, guilty by their own ADMISSION!, we need to just go ahead, and put them down. They are too dangerous to ever be let loose again.
Once a person has been determined BY HIS OWN BEHAVIOR that he's too dangerous to ever live among us again, why are they here?!? Something went wrong, either they crossed over of their own volition, or they were born that way, but EITHER WAY - we can't afford to ever have them live among us again.
If they cannot ever be rehabilitated, we need to go ahead, and do what we need to do, and not keep them caged-up for the rest of their lives like they're zoo animals or something. They're not animals, they are human beings, but as such as cannot live among us ever again.
Let's go ahead, and do the right thing, for them AND us.
of course he's crazy...he murdered 8 people! juice him
He was sane enough to be in disguise for two of his crimes, doesn't that sound like he knew exactly what he was doing? Just saying.
Just in time. Obama needs all the Florida votes he can get.
Absolutely! Only kill the one responsible. The others can fend for themselves.