Schizophrenic Texas inmate, 65, who tried to call Jesus Christ and John F. Kennedy as witnesses is ruled not competent to be executed after 30 years on death row for fatally shooting his in-laws

A Texas inmate who tried to call Jesus Christ and President John F. Kennedy as trial witnesses is not mentally fit enough to be executed, a federal judge has ruled.

Scott Panetti, 65, has been on death row for almost thirty years after shooting his in-laws to death in September 1992 in the presence of his ex-wife Sonja Alvarado and his three-year-old daughter.

He was just hours away from execution by lethal injection on December 3, 2014, before it was postponed following a ruling by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in Texas.

Panetti’s attorneys have long argued that his 45-year documented history of serious mental illness, including paranoid and grandiose delusions and audio hallucinations, show that he is mentally incapable of being put to death.

U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman in Austin ruled Wednesday that Panetti’s well-documented mental illness and disorganized thoughts prevented him from understanding the reason for his execution.

Panetti was diagnosed with schizophrenia 14 years ago before fatally shooting Joe and Amanda Alvarado in front of his estranged wife and daughter.

In a 1999 affidavit, Sonja said that although she hated what her ex-husband did, he was a good man who suffered from mental illness and should not be put to death.

The U.S. Supreme Court has banned the death penalty for the mentally disabled, but not for people with serious mental illness.

But it has ruled that a person must be competent to be executed.

In his 24-page ruling, Judge Pitman wrote: “There are several reasons to prohibit the execution of the insane, including the questionable retributive value of executing an individual so afflicted with mental illness that he has lost the ‘meaning and purpose of cannot understand the punishment’. “.

‘As well as society’s intuition that such an execution ‘simply insults humanity’. Scott Panetti is one of these people.”

Gregory Wiercioch, one of Panetti’s attorneys, said the ruling “prevents the state of Texas from retaliating against an individual who suffers from a profound, severe form of schizophrenia that causes him to inaccurately perceive the world around him.”

“His symptoms of psychosis hinder his ability to rationally understand the connection between his crime and his execution. “For that reason, executing him would not serve the retributive purpose of the death penalty and would simply be a miserable spectacle,” he said.

The Texas attorney general’s office had argued during a three-day hearing in October 2022 that Panetti has jurisdiction for execution. He has had two previous execution dates, in 2004 and 2014.

The Supreme Court ruled in 1986 that the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of mentally ill persons who have no factual understanding of their punishment.

Ruling on an appeal in Panetti’s case in 2007, the Supreme Court added that a mentally ill person must also have a rational understanding of why he or she is being executed.

At the October hearing, Timothy Proctor, a forensic psychologist and state expert, said that while he thinks Panetti is “truly mentally ill,” he understands both factually and rationally why he should be executed.

Panetti claims Texas wants to execute him to cover up incest, corruption, sexual abuse and drug trafficking he uncovered.

He also said the devil has “blinded” Texas and is using the state to kill him to keep him from preaching and “saving souls.”

Panetti was convicted of murdering his estranged wife’s parents in their Fredericksburg home in the Texas Hill Country.

He armed himself with a rifle, a sawn-off shotgun and knives, dressed in camouflage clothing and broke into his in-laws’ home.

Both Joe and Amanda Alvarado were shot at close range in front of his ex-wife and daughter before Panetti allowed them to leave.

He later put on a suit and turned himself in to the police.

Despite being diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1978 and hospitalized for treatment more than a dozen times in the decades before the fatal shooting, he was allowed by a judge to act as his own attorney at his 1995 trial.

At his trial, Panetti wore a purple cowboy outfit, tossed a coin to choose a juror and insisted that only an insane person could prove insanity.

He testified as alternate personality “Sarge” to describe the Alvarado murders and attempted to subpoena Jesus Christ, the Pope and the late President John F. Kennedy.

His lawyer Wiercioch previously said that Panetti’s delusions “have become more pervasive.”

Wiercioch said Panetti told him that devices implanted in his teeth by dentists sent command messages to his brain, that he had an argument with future President Barack Obama at a Chicago museum in sixth grade and that his tooth told him a letter to write an apology to Obama.

Ellen Stewart-Klein, an assistant Texas attorney general, told the Supreme Court in 2014 that data did not support claims that Panetti’s mental state had deteriorated and that some of his strange behavior could have been intentional.

“Panetti’s mental health status has long been exaggerated in his favor and he continues this long-standing pattern here,” Stewart-Klein said.

Sonja filed for divorce from Panetti over her husband’s drinking and said he was obsessed with the idea that the devil lived in their home.

He buried furniture and nailed shut the curtains. Panetti also had hallucinations that the devil lived in the walls of the house and began washing the walls, believing that they were flowing with blood.

Three years after her ex-husband’s trial for the murder of her parents, Sonja filed a petition saying he should never have been tried for the crimes.

She said, “I don’t hate Scott. I hate what Scott did. Scott was a good man, except when he changed…I now know that Scott is mentally ill and should not be put to death.”

Dailymail.com has contacted the Texas Attorney General’s office and Panetti’s attorney Wiercioch for comment.