physical diagnosis

On February 21, 1978, Freddie Lee Hall and his accomplice Mark Ruffin kidnapped, beat, raped, and murdered Karol Hurst, a pregnant 21-year-old newlywed. Afterward Hall and Ruffin drove to a convenience store they planned to rob and killed Lonnie Coburn, a sheriff’s deputy who attempted to apprehend them. Hall received the death penalty for both murders, although his sentence for the Coburn murder was later reduced on account of insufficient evidence of premeditation. When Hall was first sentenced, this Court had not yet ruled that the Eighth Amendment prohibits States from imposing the death penalty on persons with intellectual disability. After this Court held that capital defendants must be permitted to present nonstatutory mitigating evidence in death penalty proceedings, Hall was resentenced. Hall then presented substantial and unchallenged evidence of intellectual disability, including school records in which his teachers identified him on numerous occasions as mentally retarded, testimony from his prior lawyer that he could not understand anything Hall said, and testimony from medical clinicians that Hall was significantly retarded and had levels of understanding typically seen with toddlers. Hall’s siblings testified that there was something very wrong with him as a child, that he was slow with speech and slow to learn, and that he walked and talked long after his other brothers and sisters. The sentencing court found substantial evidence that Hall had been mentally retarded his entire life yet still imposed a death sentence, which the Florida Supreme Court affirmed. In 2002, after this Court ruled that the Eighth Amendment prohibited the execution of persons with intellectual disability, Hall filed a motion claiming that he had intellectual disability and could not be executed. More than five years later, Florida held a hearing to consider Hall’s motion. Hall again presented evidence of intellectual disability, including an IQ test score of 71. Hall had received nine IQ evaluations in 40 years, with scores ranging from 60 to 80, but the sentencing court excluded the two scores below 70 for evidentiary reasons, leaving only scores between 71 and 80. In response, Florida argued that Hall could not be found intellectually disabled because Florida law requires that, as a threshold matter, Hall show an IQ test score of 70 or below before presenting any additional evidence of his intellectual disability. The Florida Supreme Court rejected Hall’s appeal and held that Florida’s 70-point threshold was constitutional. This Court granted certiorari.

In 1992 Scott Louis Panetti broke into the home of his estranged wife's parents in Texas, shot and killed both of them in front of his wife and daughter, and held his wife and daughter hostage overnight before surrendering to police. Tried for capital murder in 1995, Panetti sought to represent himself. A court-ordered psychiatric evaluation revealed a fragmented personality, delusions, and hallucinations, and noted multiple prior hospitalizations for these disorders. He was found competent to stand trial and to waive counsel. At trial he claimed insanity and engaged in bizarre and trance-like behavior before the jury. Less than two months after sentencing the trial court found him incompetent to waive appointment of state habeas counsel. The Texas courts denied relief on direct appeal and state habeas. The federal district court and Fifth Circuit rejected Panetti's first federal habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254, and this Court denied certiorari. On October 31, 2003 the state trial court set an execution date of February 5, 2004. Panetti then filed his first motion under Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 46.05 claiming, for the first time, that mental illness rendered him incompetent to be executed. The trial judge denied the motion without a hearing, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction. Panetti filed a second federal habeas petition. The district court stayed execution to permit the state trial court to consider evidence of his current mental state. The state court ordered two mental-health experts to examine Panetti. Their April 28, 2004 report concluded he knew he was to be executed and understood the reason. Without holding a hearing or ruling on Panetti's ten pending motions—including requests for a competency hearing, funds for his own expert, and transcription—the state judge found him competent on May 26, 2004 and closed the case. Panetti returned to federal court. The district court concluded the state proceedings failed to comply with Texas law and were constitutionally inadequate under Ford v. Wainwright. It reviewed the incompetency claim without deference to the state finding but denied relief because Panetti had not shown he met the Fifth Circuit's competency standard. The Fifth Circuit affirmed, and this Court granted certiorari.

In August 1976 Walter Harper was sentenced to prison for robbery and incarcerated at the Washington State Penitentiary, where he spent most of his time in the mental health unit and consented to antipsychotic medication. In 1980 Harper was paroled on the condition that he participate in psychiatric treatment, which he received at Harborview Medical Center and later at Western State Hospital under a civil commitment order. His parole was revoked in December 1981 after he assaulted two nurses at a hospital in Seattle. Upon his return to prison, respondent was sent to the Special Offender Center, a 144-bed correctional institute established by the Washington Department of Corrections to diagnose and treat convicted felons with serious mental disorders. At the Center, Harper was diagnosed with a manic-depressive disorder and initially consented to treatment, including antipsychotic drugs, but in November 1982 he refused further medication. The treating psychiatrist then invoked SOC Policy 600.30 to administer the drugs involuntarily after a committee hearing found that Harper suffered from a mental disorder and posed a likelihood of serious harm to others. Harper was involuntarily medicated for about one year beginning November 23, 1982, then transferred to the Washington State Reformatory in November 1983 where he took no medication and his condition deteriorated, prompting his retransfer to the Center and another involuntary medication approval. He continued receiving the drugs subject to periodic reviews until his transfer to the Washington State Penitentiary in June 1986. In February 1985 Harper filed suit in state court under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the State and individual defendants, alleging that the failure to provide a judicial hearing before involuntary administration of antipsychotic medication violated due process and other constitutional provisions. After a bench trial in March 1987 the trial court upheld the policy's procedures as satisfying due process, but the Washington Supreme Court reversed, holding that a judicial hearing with full adversarial protections and proof by clear, cogent, and convincing evidence was required. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari in 1989 to review the constitutional questions presented by the state court's decision.

On the evening of June 4, 1968, five white United States Marine Lieutenants in formal dress uniforms and a woman named Barbara Kelly entered a hamburger shop in Washington, D.C., around 2:40 a.m. after a night out. They ordered food at the take-out counter and noticed three Black men—appellants Alexander and Murdock and Cornelius Frazier—sitting at the other end of the counter. According to prosecution witnesses, a staring contest between Lieutenant Kramer and Alexander led to Alexander tapping Kramer on the shoulder, asking him to step outside, and making a threat. After a racial epithet from Lieutenant King, Alexander drew a .38 caliber revolver. Murdock then reentered and drew his own revolver, after which shots were fired, killing Lieutenants King and Lesnick and wounding Kramer and Kelly. Alexander, Murdock, and Frazier fled in Alexander's car, with Murdock firing additional shots from the window. They were stopped by police within a few blocks, and two revolvers were recovered from the car floorboard. Defense witnesses Frazier and Murdock testified that the Marines were drunk and aggressive, and Murdock claimed he fired in self-defense fearing for his life. At a joint jury trial in February 1969, both were convicted of carrying a dangerous weapon and four counts of assault with a dangerous weapon; Murdock was also convicted of two counts of second-degree murder. Murdock's trial was bifurcated; after the guilt phase, a separate hearing on criminal responsibility was held in November 1969 before the same jury, which found him criminally responsible. Alexander received consecutive sentences totaling five to twenty-three years, and Murdock twenty years to life. Both appealed their convictions to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which heard argument on December 21, 1970, and issued its decision on April 21, 1972.