Supporters of capital punishment insist it is reserved for the most heinous crimes, committed by the most blameworthy offenders. It is difficult to understand how a person whose mind has been plagued by delusions and hallucinations could ever be deemed one of Texas' culpable offenders. Mr. Colburn killed Peggy Murphy while racked with hallucinations caused by his illness. He did not act from malice or evil or for pecuniary gain. Life imprisonment would be sufficient to express outrage at his crime, to hold him accountable, and to protect society from further violence.
As many death penalty supporters recognize, execution is unconscionable for offenders who suffer from serious and persistent mental illness. Mr. Colburn has paranoid schizophrenia, an illness first diagnosed when he was a teenager. A court appointed psychologist agreed in 1995 with this diagnosis, as have many other mental health professionals as well as the prosecution. Schizophrenia, which often begins in late adolescence, is a frightening and debilitating disease typically marked by disordered, illogical and incoherent thinking, delusions and hallucinations, among other symptoms. Paranoid schizophrenics, such as Mr. Colburn, typically have delusions of persecution and may be suicidal or violent to others. Mr. Colburn's symptoms included auditory hallucinations that commanded him to harm himself and others. Indeed, Mr. Colburn has attempted suicide at least fifteen times and has been in and out of mental hospitals. He was receiving intermittent mental heath treatment in the weeks leading up to the murder of which he was convicted. He continues to suffer from auditory hallucinations and psychotic episodes.
Clemency is also warranted for Mr. Colburn because there are serious doubts regarding his competence to stand trial. The court-appointed psychologist who diagnosed Mr. Colburn as a paranoid schizophrenic concluded that Colburn was competent to stand trial because he was able to consult with a lawyer and have a factual understanding of the proceedings around him. During his trial, however, Mr. Colburn received injections of Haldol, an extremely powerful anti-psychotic medication which can be sedating. According the news reports, Colburn slept throughout his own trial. The psychologist who examined Mr. Colburn before the trial stated in a post-conviction affidavit that the effects of Mr. Colburn's medication probably rendered him incompetent during the trial. Despite the serious concerns raised about Mr. Colburn's competence to stand trial, appeals courts have upheld his conviction and death sentence.
The power to remedy this injustice now rests with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. Clemency is appropriate not only because his medication rendered him unable to participate in his own defense, and thus incompetent under Texas law, but also because the extreme sanction of the death penalty should not be meted out to someone whose culpability is clearly diminished by a serious, lifelong mental illness.
Most of the world's democracies (and some dictatorships) recognize capital punishment is an anachronistic cruelty that should be abolished. They also maintain, however, that if a country retains capital punishment, at the very least it should not be imposed on anyone who suffers from serious mental illness. In 2002, as in preceding years, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights adopted resolutions that called upon states not to impose the death penalty on "a person suffering from any form of mental disorder."
Human Rights Watch opposes capital punishment in all circumstances. The death penalty is a form of punishment unique in its cruelty and is inevitably carried out in an arbitrary manner, inflicted primarily on the most vulnerable - the poor, the mentally ill, and persons of color. The intrinsic fallibility of all criminal justice systems assures that even when full due process of law is respected, innocent persons may be executed. In the case of James Colburn, the death penalty is even more unconscionable because of his mental illness.
We urge you to grant clemency to James Colburn.
Sincerely,
/s/
Wendy Patten
U.S. Advocacy Director
Cc: Governor Rick Perry
