Lawyers want US Supreme Court to block Texas execution
LIVINGSTON, Texas (AP) — Attorneys are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to block the scheduled execution of a Texas death row inmate whom they describe as delusional.
Lawyers say the high court should extend the ban on executing mentally impaired people to those who are mentally ill, such as 33-year-old Adam Ward.
Ward is facing lethal injection Tuesday evening for fatally shooting a code enforcement officer. The officer had been taking photos of junk piled up outside the Ward family home when the two got into an argument.
Ward says the shooting nearly 11 years ago was in self-defense.
"Whenever you've been harassed, you take preventative measures if you have to," Ward told The Associated Press from prison, repeating testimony he gave at his trial that he believed officer Michael Walker was armed.
No evidence showed Walker carried a gun.
Dennis Davis, Ward's trial lawyer, says Walker told Ward that he was calling for back up, and in Ward's mind this meant police were on their way to kill him.
Ward would be the ninth convicted killer executed in the U.S. this year and the fifth in Texas, which carries out capital punishment more than any other state.
Ward's attorneys have renewed arguments that he is severely mentally ill and contend that his execution would be unconstitutional because of evolving sentiment against executing the mentally ill. The high court has ruled that mentally impaired people, generally defined as those with an IQ below 70, may not be executed.
State lawyers, who said evidence showed Ward's IQ as high as 123, said courts have not exempted mentally ill offenders from the death penalty. The Supreme Court has held that mentally ill prisoners may be executed if they understand they are about to be put to death and why they face punishment.
Evidence of Ward's delusions, paranoia and bipolar disorder was presented at his 2007 trial and resurfaced in earlier appeals. The Supreme Court last October refused to review Ward's case.