Bipolar Execution Victim in Texas: Adam Ward

We are discussing capital punishment at my Facebook page. I am an anti-DP advocate and believe executions must end in the USA. This is particularly true for mentally ill Americans like Adam Ward, a 33-year-old bipolar man who Texas executed on Tuesday, March 22. The Huffington Post recently ran a story entitled "Bernie Sanders Speaks Out Against The Death Penalty After Hillary Clinton Stands By It." Senator Sanders said, "I believe it is time for the United States of America to join almost every other Western, industrialized country on Earth in saying NO to the death penalty."

When people enter controversial comments on my Facebook page and stalkers prevent their names from linking in my response, I feel that my response is censored. Sometimes I then enter said responses in an article in this "Justice Gagged" blog. I learned long ago that the hackers work for executioners, racists, and Nazis. The people, organizations, and topics I was writing to or about when I was most harshly censored may be surprising, including the NAACP, the national adult vaccination plan, Christianity, and Michelle Obama. Anti-dp language is always certain to be censored, which is why I usually run a separate digital camera when dealing with that subject online. My films will be made available to purchase for a nominal fee at CreateSpace. Americans should know which subjects are considered exempt from free speech protections by elitist Nazis.

My response below to Terry Harris would not link her name, although I tried multiple times. See part of the conversation below. You can read the entire discussion at my Facebook page, link
https://www.facebook.com/marylovesjustice

Terry Harris I feel horrible about mental illness, however if they kill then they should be executed like everyone else!

Like · Reply · 1 · 21 hrs

Walt Stawicki i don't know where to start ripping that one apart.

Unlike · Reply · 2 · 20 hrs

Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill Define "everyone else," please, Terry Harris. Then please cite a case where a murderous #police officer or wealthy person was #executed in the USA. Thanks.

Make an immediate #humanrights  demand that no persons with diagnosed mental illnesses be executed in the USA. Make Adam Ward their last disabled victim. https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials MLJ

We congratulate Bernie Sanders, an anti-death penalty advocate, for our victories in Alaska, Washington, and Hawaii. We urge officials everywhere to say DEATH to the death penalty.

Mary Neal, MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com, (678)531-0262

Follow America's Most Censored at "Justice Gagged" blog: 

http://JusticeGagged.blogspot.com

Scott Panetti: Ridicule and Execution

Does the United States justice system find mental illness entertaining? Do officials over justice consider it funny to kill mentally disabled citizens? Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty shared a video exposing the trial of Scott Panetti, who was charged with murdering his in-laws on September 8, 1992. The court allowed this untreated man who suffered from severe paranoid schizophrenia to conduct his own defense wearing a cowboy outfit and be sentenced to death.

Panetti's father expressed a loss of faith in the justice system after watching his very sick son try to defend himself. He expected Judge Steven Ables to stop the trial when it was obvious how unprepared Panetti was, but Judge Ables allowed the trial to continue to the end. Perhaps Edith Jones is not the only judge on the who believes that a death sentence provides a public service by allowing an inmate to "make peace with God." See the video below and at YouTube link http://youtu.be/0WTn78SIRvc . News and viewpoints are censored regarding how America mistreats its acute mentally ill citizens.
UPDATE: The video is now at 
http://youtu.be/obBaLvWZ8HE 

December 3, 2014 update: The United Nations requests that the United States commute Panetti's sentence based on human decency and the Convention Against Torture. 
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=49487

Original test resumes: Panetti's appeals have been denied since he was sentenced to execution. Some judges have disdain for defendants who are mentally ill. The Austin Chronicle reports that Justice Edith Jones, who sits on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals – based in New Orleans, its jurisdiction includes Texas – made numerous offensive and biased comments during a February lecture at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, according to the complaint filed pursuant to the federal Judicial Conduct and Disability Act. She told law students and other attendees that she thought the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling outlawing the death penalty for the mentally retarded did intellectually disabled individuals a disservice, and that to create such an exemption from execution was a "slippery slope," reads the complaint.

"In describing … what Judge Jones said about these cases, I am not able to capture the complete outrage she expressed over the crimes or the disgust she evinced over the defense raised, particularly by the defendants who claimed to be mentally retarded," reads the declaration, filed with the complaint, of veteran Pennsylvania-based death penalty attorney Marc Bookman, who attended the lecture. "Judge Jones's disgust at how these defendants were 'using mental retardation' was very evident and very disconcerting," reads the complaint. Austin Chronicle Report on Judith Jones
http://www.austinchronicle.com/blogs/news/2013-06-04/judge-edith-jones-blacks-and-hispanics-more-violent/

An excerpt from Yahoo Voices described the Panetti trial: "Dressed in costume like one of the actors in an old Western Movie, with a big brimmed cowboy hat hanging on his shoulders by the strap, plaid shirt, bandanna, fancy cowboy boots, and spurs, Scott Panetti proceeded to defend himself, playing out the role of lawyer. The prevailing judge, Ables allowed his court to be turned into a three ring circus as jurors watched, stunned at what they were seeing and hearing, some fearing the man they watched before them."

An attorney who was called by Panetti as a witness shared his observations, stating: “The courtroom had the atmosphere of a circus. The judge just seemed to let Scott run free with his irrational questions and courtroom antics.”
http://www.internationaljusticeproject.org/illnessSPanetti.cfm

Panetti's ex-wife, whose parents were killed, does not feel that Panetti should die for his crime that resulted from untreated mental illness. And obviously, nobody should defend himself in a capital murder case, especially not a paranoid schizophrenic man dressed as a cowboy. Panetti's trial was an outrageous exercise that has probably provided justice officials many laughs for over 20 years while Scott Panetti awaits the needle on death row in Texas.

Homelessness, prison and death must discontinue being America's answer to acute mental illness. Nobody deserves execution for having a health crisis.