Supreme Court Refuses to Block Execution From [HERE] A Black man whose lawyers argued was mentally ill and incompetent for execution was put to death Wednesday evening for killing a 12-year-old white girl more than a decade ago.
Jonathan Green, 44, received lethal injection after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected last-day appeals to spare him. A judge earlier this week stopped the punishment, but an appeals court overturned the reprieve. Then 11th-hour appeals delayed the punishment nearly five hours past the initial 6 p.m. execution time and as the midnight expiration of the death warrant neared. Asked by the warden, who is white, if he had a statement from the death chamber gurney, Green shook his head and replied, "No." But seconds later he changed his mind, saying: "I'm an innocent man. I never killed anyone. Y'all are killing an innocent man."
He then looked down and said his left arm, where one of the needles carrying the lethal drug was inserted, and said, "It's hurting me bad." But almost immediately he began snoring loudly. The sounds stopped after about six breaths. Green was pronounced dead 18 minutes later at 10:45 p.m. It appeared the Supreme Court cleared the way for his execution earlier Wednesday when it rejected an appeal from his attorneys just as the window for the lethal injection opened at 6 p.m. However, the punishment was delayed Wednesday night by another appeal that finally was refused less than two hours before the midnight expiration of the death warrant neared.
White Victim Means Death for Black Man
Green was condemned for the abduction, rape and strangling of Christina Neal, whose body was found at his home in 2000 about a month after she was reported missing. Her family lived across a highway from Green in Dobbin, about 45 miles northwest of Houston. She was white. Since 1977, the overwhelming majority of death row defendants (77%) have been executed for killing white victims, even though African-Americans make up about half of all homicide victims. [MORE]
Christina's parents were among people to watch Green die. They declined to speak with reporters following the execution. These white folks got their revenge on.
Green suffers from schizophrenia, and his attorney, James Rytting, claims he also is borderline mentally retarded. He argued his hallucinations made him ineligible for the death penalty and said a state competency hearing for him two years ago was unfair. He said his client hallucinated about the "ongoing spiritual warfare between two sets of voices representing good and evil." That led to a reprieve from a federal district Judge Nancy Alas on Monday, who ruled that a state judge had violated due process in 2010 by finding Green mentally competent for the death penalty.
But the Texas attorney general's office appealed the decision and persuaded the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn that ruling and lift the stay of execution late Tuesday.
Circuit Ct of Appeals Granted White Prosecutor's Appeal of Decision to Stay his Excecution to Argue Competency. Asking the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn Atlas' ruling, Assistant Attorney General Tomee Heining (in photo) argued Tuesday that Green's appeal violated federal precedent by bringing up evidence not presented at trial and that the lower court abused its authority in its decision.
"Green's competency has been thoroughly explored in state court, and does not require further investigation," Heining said. "Green was given the opportunity to present, through appointed counsel, expert testimony, evidence and argument on the issue of his competency to be executed."
James Rytting, one of Green's attorneys, said the state's argument contained "misstatements and mischaracterizations" and urged the 5th Circuit uphold the reprieve.
"Vacating the stay will deny Mr. Green's right to develop his competency claim in federal proceedings," he said.
Rytting said the constitutional issue was whether Green now was incompetent for execution. [MORE]