No Execution for Acute Mental Patient Andre Thomas

ANDRE THOMAS, an acute mental patient on Texas Death Row, pulled out his only eye and ate it on January 9.  An officer at the Polunsky Unit found Thomas in his cell with blood streaming down his face and took him to the infirmary.  The schizophrenic inmate had already eaten his left eye in 2004 while in jail awaiting trial after killing his wife and two young children before stabbing himself in the chest.  

Following the murders, this sick man walked to the Sherman Police Department and told a dispatcher what he had done.  Thomas explained that he cut his family's hearts out and put them in his pocket.  He then took his family's hearts home and put them into plastic bags.

A judge subsequently ruled that Thomas was competent to stand trial.

Bobbie Peterson-Cate, Thomas' trial attorney, said, "He is insane and mentally ill."

We, the undersigned petitioners, hereby make the following demands:

1)  Andre Thomas must be immediately removed to a secure mental hospital and prohibited from eating any more of his body parts; and 

2)  Andre Thomas and all other condemned persons with a history of mental illness must be immediately and permanently rendered ineligible for capital punishment and reassigned to mental institutions for permanent containment and psychiatric treatment.

We strongly object to imprisoning people because they are mentally disturbed and executing people whose criminal offenses were caused by mental illness.

Thank you.