Earlier this week I reported on the pending execution of John Ferguson for Truthout. Ferguson is a 64-year-old Florida prisoner scheduled for lethal injection on October 16 for a 1977 mass murder. The problem is that Ferguson is a severely paranoid schizophrenic who believes that he is the “Prince of God.” The Supreme Court has ruled, twice, that executing the mentally ill is unconstitutional if they don’t understand the rationale behind their sentence.

Florida prosecutors have been arguing that Ferguson is faking his delusions, what psychiatrists call “malingering”. After a competency hearing this week, a Florida judge has finally admitted that Ferguson is indeed delusional. Yet he has ruled that despite these delusions, Ferguson is competent for execution. Ferguson’s attorney, Christopher Handman, released this statement in response to the ruling:

“Today, Judge Glant of the Circuit Court of the Eighth Judicial Circuit found, based on what he called “credible and compelling” testimony from John Ferguson’s experts that John (1) is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, (2) has genuine “Prince of God” delusions, and (3) is not feigning or malingering any of these psychoses.  Despite his findings that John is severely mentally ill, the judge ruled that John is nonetheless mentally competent for execution because he knows, as a factual matter, that the State plans to execute him.

“The Supreme Court’s decision in Panetti v. Quarterman requires a rational understanding of why an individual is being put to death and the consequences of the death penalty.  Nationally-recognized experts in neuropsychiatry and forensic psychology examined John and testified that he lacks a rational understanding of why he is being put to death and the effect of the death penalty. The Judge believed them.  And for nearly 50 years, Florida’s own psychiatrists have diagnosed John as schizophrenia, psychotic and severely mentally impaired.

“It is impossible to fathom that the State can constitutionally put to death a man who thinks he is the Prince of God and who believes he has a destiny of being the right hand of God and returning to purify earth after the State tries to kill him.  That simply is not a rational appreciation for what’s about to befall him. We are confident that either the Florida Supreme Court or the U.S. Supreme Court will prevent this unconstitutional execution from going forward. “