In the news:
Originally published February 6, 2012 at 8:42 PM | Page modified February 6, 2012 at 9:04 PM
Mississippi execution blocked
A convicted killer's attorneys said corrections officials prevented the inmate from getting medical tests that could prove he is mentally ill.
The Associated Press
JACKSON, Miss. — A federal judge Monday temporarily blocked the execution of a Mississippi inmate who killed two men in a 1995 robbery. The man's attorneys said that corrections officials prevented the inmate from getting medical tests that could prove he is mentally ill.
Edwin Hart Turner, 38, had been scheduled to die by injection Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves in Jackson blocked the execution until Feb. 20. James Craig with the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center argued at a hearing Friday that the state's corrections-department policy prohibited Turner from getting tests that could prove he's mentally ill, a diagnosis they hope would help sway the U.S. Supreme Court to block the executions of Turner and others with mental illnesses. The policy requires court orders for medical experts or others to visit and test inmates.
"Mr. Turner has never had a fair opportunity to present the evidence that he is the sort of seriously mentally ill prisoner who should not be executed in a humane criminal justice system," Craig said in a statement Monday.
Turner killed the men, went home and ate shrimp and cinnamon rolls before going to sleep. But his lawyers argue that he inherited a serious mental illness.
