Missouri executes mentally ill black inmate
A mentally ill African-American inmate has been executed in the US state of Missouri after the Supreme Court turned down his lawyers’ last ditch appeal to prevent his death.
Andre Cole, 52, was executed Tuesday night, for killing a man 16 years ago. He was convicted and sentenced by an all-white jury.
The Supreme Court had turned down several appeals, including one that argued Cole was mentally ill and unfit for execution.
According to his lawyers, Cole suffered psychosis and constantly heard voices in his head. They said his mental health even deteriorated during more than a decade he spent in prison.
“He hears voices over the TV, over the prison intercom, everywhere,” said Cole’s attorney Joseph Luby.
Luby said Cole was thinking that Missouri Governor Jay Nixon and prosecutors were “giving him messages about his case.”
Gov. Nixon also declined a clemency request that raised concerns about the fact that Cole was convicted and sentenced by an all-white jury.
Rights groups, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the American Civil Liberties Union, said Cole’s case was among many in which St. Louis County prosecutors unfairly prohibited black jurors from hearing a death penalty case involving a black suspect.
They urged Nixon to stop the execution and appoint a board to examine racial bias concerns.
Last month, Missouri executed 74-year-old Cecil Clayton, who had lost parts of his brain in a 1972 sawmill accident.
According to his attorneys, Clayton suffered from lingering effects of the accident in which a piece of wood broke off and pierced his head.
Clayton was given a lethal injection for the 1996 shooting death of a sheriff's deputy in rural southwest Missouri's Barry County.
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