Post by Anja Nieser on Sept 6, 2006 18:19:29 GMT -5
Holton judged competent for death
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that a Shelbyville man knows what he's doing
and so his Sept. 19 execution remains on schedule.
Daryl Holton's mental competency was the issue before U.S. District Court
Judge Thomas Phillips Tuesday, according to Alex Wiesendanger, associate
director of the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing.
Divorced from his wife, Holton killed his three sons and step-daughter in
November 1997, believing that their lives were ruined and that he was
doing what was best for them, Wiesendanger said after the federal court
hearing in Nashville where Phillips ruled from the bench.
"Daryl Holton's murder of his 4 children was a horribly tragic event, but
it might never have happened if Holton had been receiving proper
treatment," Wiesendanger said. "To contend that a person suffering from
severe mental illness is competent to make rational decisions is to
gravely misunderstand how mental illness affects the human mind."
Many men who commit such crimes do so while suffering major depression, a
condition causing them to project their feelings of helplessness and
hopelessness onto the lives of their children, Wiesendanger said. These
men, like Holton, then act in what they believe is an altruistic manner,
attempting to "save" their children from pain by ending their lives.
Last week, Holton selected the electric chair instead of lethal injection
as the method of execution. He has that choice because the state changed
the system after he was convicted by a Bedford County jury that also
returned 4 death sentences, one for each child killed in the auto repair
shop where Holton was living.
(source: Shelbyville Times-Gazette)
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that a Shelbyville man knows what he's doing
and so his Sept. 19 execution remains on schedule.
Daryl Holton's mental competency was the issue before U.S. District Court
Judge Thomas Phillips Tuesday, according to Alex Wiesendanger, associate
director of the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing.
Divorced from his wife, Holton killed his three sons and step-daughter in
November 1997, believing that their lives were ruined and that he was
doing what was best for them, Wiesendanger said after the federal court
hearing in Nashville where Phillips ruled from the bench.
"Daryl Holton's murder of his 4 children was a horribly tragic event, but
it might never have happened if Holton had been receiving proper
treatment," Wiesendanger said. "To contend that a person suffering from
severe mental illness is competent to make rational decisions is to
gravely misunderstand how mental illness affects the human mind."
Many men who commit such crimes do so while suffering major depression, a
condition causing them to project their feelings of helplessness and
hopelessness onto the lives of their children, Wiesendanger said. These
men, like Holton, then act in what they believe is an altruistic manner,
attempting to "save" their children from pain by ending their lives.
Last week, Holton selected the electric chair instead of lethal injection
as the method of execution. He has that choice because the state changed
the system after he was convicted by a Bedford County jury that also
returned 4 death sentences, one for each child killed in the auto repair
shop where Holton was living.
(source: Shelbyville Times-Gazette)