Posted on 02/01/2006 5:25:23 AM PST by grjr21
Death-row inmate George Emil Banks thinks he's been pardoned by God and is no longer facing execution.
He believes that his lawyers, psychiatrists and prison staff are joined in a wide-ranging conspiracy to get him to renounce God. He thinks that his itchy body rash was the work of flesh-eating demons. And he has blamed his continued incarceration on the "Islamic government of the United States."
That is the delusional world of the convicted mass murderer, according to testimony at yesterday's hearing at Graterford Prison to determine whether he is mentally competent to be executed.
While psychiatrists detailed his deteriorating mental condition, Banks, 63, huddled in a cell adjacent to the hearing room, sometimes covering his head. He sent word that he wanted to skip the afternoon session because he could not hear the proceedings. His lawyers did not object. "Mr. Banks is not with us mentally," one of his lawyers, Billy Nolas, told the judge.
The testimony painted a grim portrait of Banks as a psychotic and delusional prisoner whose mental state has deteriorated since his 1983 trial for the shooting rampage that left 13 people dead, including five of his children, in and around Wilkes-Barre in Luzerne County.
Two psychiatrists and a psychologist testified as defense witnesses that he is so severely mentally ill that he does not comprehend his looming execution or the reasons for the death sentence. Senior Deputy Attorney General Jonelle H. Eshbach contends that Banks is mentally competent, but she was barred from calling an expert who would have supported that view.
After the daylong hearing, Luzerne County Court Judge Michael Conahan said he intended to rule by the end of the month on whether Banks is mentally competent to be executed. Whatever decision he makes is likely to be appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which halted his execution in December 2004 and ordered the competency hearing. A new execution date has not been set.
All three experts testified that, in their opinion, Banks is not mentally competent under the standards set forth by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1986 Florida case of Ford v. Wainwright, which held that the Constitution bars the execution of the insane.
"He has a delusional belief... that he has been pardoned, that his sins have been forgiven, and that he is no longer facing execution, and is awaiting release," psychiatrist John O'Brien testified.
"Does Mr. Banks have a rational grasp of his death sentence?" Nolas asked psychiatrist Richard Dudley Jr.
"No," replied Dudley, who said that when he questioned Banks about his pending execution, Banks told him that he did not think that he will be put to death.
"He said they wouldn't go through with that but may do a fake execution to fake him out to see whether he would denounce God," Dudley said.
The experts said that mental illness has remained a factor as Banks' emotional situation deteriorated over the years. Prison records described a litany of problems: He has tried to commit suicide, gone on hunger strikes, and refused medical and psychiatric treatment.
The experts testified that an array of psychiatric medications failed to stop his delusions, and that his break with reality has been consistent. All three said they did not believe he was faking.
"It's tough to malinger for 10 or 15 years, and his behavior has been consistent," psychologist Jethro Toomer testified.
The state rested without an expert to testify that Banks was competent to be executed.
The judge had barred the testimony of a psychiatrist who was prepared to testify for the state that Banks was mentally competent.
The ruling came after defense lawyers objected that the psychiatrist had spoken with Banks on one occasion outside their presence.
Eshbach had asked for more time to allow a New York psychiatrist to complete an evaluation in the case, but Conahan refused.
"We've been substantially hampered," said Eshbach, who has appealed the issue to the state Supreme Court.
The hearing was held at Graterford, where Banks is on death row, because of uncertainty about his condition.
"I don't even think he knows what's going on," said another of his lawyers, Albert Flora Jr.
That says it all
Well, hopefully he will soon be beyond all earthly pain and trouble.
Heaven knows insanity was disreputable enough, long ago; but now that the lawyers have got to cutting every gallows rope and picking every prison lock with it, it is become a sneaking villainy that ought to hang and keep on hanging its sudden possessors until evil-doers should conclude that the safest plan was to never claim to have it until they came by it legitimately. The very calibre of the people the lawyers most frequently try to save by the insanity subterfuge ought to laugh the plea out of the courts, one would think.
MARK TWAIN
I do truly understand why we don't try people who are mentally incompetent, because they can't defend themselves. I understand why we don't convict people who were mentally incompetent when they committed a crime, because they didn't understand that their actions were wrong.
But I just don't understand why we can't execute a person simply because they go crazy in prison.
That combination of words simply does not seem to make any sense to me......
Kill him and be done with it
It says that this judge is competent and courageous. A psychiatrists who believes that itchy body rash can be the work of flesh-eating demons is a very strange psychiatrist.
Tough noogies.
He had it together enough to load, aim and fire a weapon and kill THIRTEEN people.
All three experts testified that, in their opinion, Banks is not mentally competent under the standards set forth by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1986 Florida case of Ford v. Wainwright, which held that the Constitution bars the execution of the insane.
BS!
The Constitution says no such thing.
I'm SO sick of these animals getting a free ride for life on the taxpayer's back because they were too young or crazy to 'know what they were doing'
They DID IT!
That's all that should matter.
1983 trial...and this scum and his lawyers are still sucking up taxpayer dollars out of PA's pathetic injustice system! There is absolutely no excuse why a mass murderer of 13 should be using oxygen that a good rat could use TWENTY-FOUR years after his killing spree. PA is guilty of gross incompetence in this case for not dispatching this vermin at least fifteen years ago.
What about the possibility that he is 'faking it' to avoid a death penalty?
There is a such a possibility, but I know about too many prosecutors and prosecution "experts" willing to fake evidence and to ignore EVIDENT mental illness.
I would rather bet that judge knows what is he doing. We still have the courts run by judges and not by prosecutors.
It's an outrage that this guy has been on death row since 1983! 22 years!! If they'd killed him 20 yrs ago, they wouldn't have this dilemma.
If someone cannot be held accountable for his actions, then he is unfit to walk in society ever without a legal guardian who WILL be held accountable for not keeping a beast under control.
What does being mentally competant have to do with anything? So if they are a nutjob, we have to support their nutjob selves for another 50 years? BS. Even more reason to remove them and their delusional selves from the earth. Hell, the left support euthanizing the mentally handicapped (Terri Schiavo), why not the ones who are mentally handicapped enough to murder 13 innocent people?
Hypocrites.
While I respect your compassion, I disagree..
The test has to be "Danger to Others"..
Frankly, I could care less about "Danger to Self"..
I don't care what the mental competence of a murderer or any other violent criminal is..
Their Actions are what is relevent..
If they cause the deaths of innocents, then they should be dealt with accordingly..
A dead criminal will never kill again..
Even kids know how to play crazy so their parents can get them Riddlin(sp).
>>>A psychiatrists who believes that itchy body rash can be the work of flesh-eating demons is a very strange psychiatrist.>>>
Of course, because people who are looking at execution couldn't or wouldn't ever LIE or create an act to avoid said execution. Yes, you and the judge would know just because this fella says he has been attacked by flesh eating demons, that he is mentally incompetent, whereas the psychiatrist who is TRAINED and SCHOOLED to recognize people trying to fool the mental health community is just a fool.
Right?
The "social democrat" Left will continue to try to destroy our legal system and the death penalty only until they are able to seize power of the government and the means of enforcing their own leftist ideals..
There will then be a sudden "about face" and you will see executions like never before..
And for a lot less than murder.. ( like political belief )
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