Post by Anja Nieser on Sept 25, 2006 0:51:00 GMT -5
High court stops Death Row inmate from hiring private doctor
One of Kentucky's longest-serving death row inmates cannot use taxpayer
dollars to hire a doctor to determine if he's mentally retarded and
ineligible for lethal injection, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled
Thursday.
The court, in a 6-1 decision, overturned a Powell County Circuit judge's
decision to let attorneys for Karu Gene White spend $5,000 to hire a
private psychiatrist.
Judge Lewis Paisley ordered the state Finance and Administration Cabinet
to pay for White's choice of a psychiatrist.
The state appealed, saying White, 48, could use a state psychiatrist for
the mental evaluation. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that executing the
mentally retarded is unconstitutional.
Justice J. William Graves said that White was entitled to the testing, but
not necessarily by a doctor of his choosing. Paisley didn't consider that
a state psychiatrist was available to evaluate White, Graves said.
White was sentenced to death in 1980 for the murders of 3 people.
Prosecutors said White and two companions robbed a store on Feb. 12, 1979,
and bludgeoned to death Charles Gross, 75, his wife Lola Gross, 74, and
Sam Chaney, 79, using a wrench, a tire tool and a tree limb.
White and his accomplices left with about $7,000 in cash, coins and a
pistol. White pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity but was convicted.
(source : Associated Press)
One of Kentucky's longest-serving death row inmates cannot use taxpayer
dollars to hire a doctor to determine if he's mentally retarded and
ineligible for lethal injection, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled
Thursday.
The court, in a 6-1 decision, overturned a Powell County Circuit judge's
decision to let attorneys for Karu Gene White spend $5,000 to hire a
private psychiatrist.
Judge Lewis Paisley ordered the state Finance and Administration Cabinet
to pay for White's choice of a psychiatrist.
The state appealed, saying White, 48, could use a state psychiatrist for
the mental evaluation. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that executing the
mentally retarded is unconstitutional.
Justice J. William Graves said that White was entitled to the testing, but
not necessarily by a doctor of his choosing. Paisley didn't consider that
a state psychiatrist was available to evaluate White, Graves said.
White was sentenced to death in 1980 for the murders of 3 people.
Prosecutors said White and two companions robbed a store on Feb. 12, 1979,
and bludgeoned to death Charles Gross, 75, his wife Lola Gross, 74, and
Sam Chaney, 79, using a wrench, a tire tool and a tree limb.
White and his accomplices left with about $7,000 in cash, coins and a
pistol. White pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity but was convicted.
(source : Associated Press)