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USA - Alabama. Stay of impending execution of David Roberts
July 31, 2025: July 31, 2025 - Alabama. Temporary stay of impending execution
Judge Stays Execution Because of Concerns with Prisoner’s Mental Competency
In a July 10, 2025, order, Marion County Alabama Circuit Court Judge Talmage Lee Carter issued a temporary stay of execution for David Roberts because of concerns regarding his mental competency. Mr. Roberts was scheduled to be executed on August 21. Judge Carter’s order tasked the Alabama Department of Mental Health with determining whether Mr. Roberts has a “rational understanding” about why the state will execute him. In his order, Judge Carter wrote, “the issue is whether the petitioner’s concept of reality is so impaired that he cannot grasp the execution’s meaning and the purpose or the link between his crime and its punishment.”
Counsel for Mr. Roberts argued in a recent petition that his death sentence should be suspended, citing his severe mental illness. According to the filing, Mr. Roberts has paranoid schizophrenia with auditory and visual hallucinations and recently attempted to burn off tattoos he believed were controlling his thoughts. “This evidence demonstrates Mr. Roberts is incompetent to be executed because his delusions prevent him from having a factual or rational understanding of the reason” he is scheduled to be executed, counsel wrote in their most recent petition to the court.
Several psychologists have met with Mr. Roberts in the last year, and each has diagnosed him with schizophrenia. Attorneys for Mr. Roberts noted these are not the first severe mental illness diagnoses their client has received. In 2002, Mr. Roberts was diagnosed with delusional disorder and in 2009, was placed in a safe cell after writing a letter that prison officials deemed a suicide threat. In response to this most recent court order, Mr. Roberts will undergo an exam to determine whether he is mentally ill, understands the reason Alabama intends to execute him, and if he understands that he was convicted and sentenced to death for the crime in question.
Mr. Roberts was convicted and sentenced to death in 1992 for the murder of Annetra Jones in Marion County, Alabama. At trial, jurors found Mr. Roberts guilty of capital murder and voted 7 – 5 to recommend he receive a life sentence without the possibility of parole. However, the trial judge overrode the jury’s recommendation and sentenced Mr. Roberts to death. Despite judicial override being removed from practice in 2017, according to the Legal Defense Fund’s Death Row U.S.A., 29 people remain on Alabama’s death row who were sentenced as the result of judicial override.
Advocates are urging Governor Kay Ivey to commute Mr. Roberts’ sentence because of his severe mental illness and other “alarming” aspects of his case.
On 27 July, Hands off Cain (see) repeated an appeal in favour of Roberts. From Italy, in addition to Cain, Jean Noto also wrote an email to the Governor of Alabama. We thank Noto, and will continue to follow Roberts' case.
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/alabama-circuit-court-judge-stays-execution-because-of-concerns-with-prisoners-mental-competency (Source: Death Penalty Information Center, 31/07/2025)
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