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United States: appeal for clemency before the execution of a condemned man who tore his eyes out

2023-02-15T21:35:10.084Z


Andre Thomas, author of a triple murder, had ingested one of his eyes after being sentenced to death in Texas. His lawyers consider that he suffers from serious mental disorders.


A request for clemency was sent Wednesday, February 15 to the governor of Texas to spare a death row inmate who tore his eyes out and ate one.

Andre Thomas, 39, is due to receive a lethal injection on April 5 in the southern US state, nearly 20 years after he killed and maimed his ex-wife, their four-year-old son and her daughter, then aged 13 months.

Without minimizing the horror of the drama, his lawyers believe that he suffers from mental disorders too serious to be executed.

In a letter to Republican Governor Greg Abbott, they ask that his sentence be commuted to life imprisonment.

His crime is "

heartbreaking

" but his mental illness, schizophrenia with episodes of hallucinations, is also "

tragic

", they write.

Seeing this eyeless and psychotic man being led to his death would be a shameful sight

,” they plead.

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Triple Murder

Five days after committing the triple murder, Andre Thomas tore out his right eye.

After his death sentence, he had enucleated the second, and had ingested it, said his lawyer Maurie Levin, during a press conference.

It goes without saying that a sane person would never do that

,” she said, recalling that the Supreme Court has banned the execution of prisoners with mental illness who cannot understand the meaning of their sentence. .

According to her, Andre Thomas started hearing voices at the age of nine and first tried to kill himself at age 10.

Two days before the crime, he had been hospitalized and a doctor had issued an internment order which had not been followed up.

His condition has deteriorated since his arrest and he has been held for 15 years in a prison dedicated to inmates with mental illness.

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The request for clemency is supported by 77 mental health specialists and around 100 religious leaders from several faiths.

Texas is one of the few US states that frequently applies the death penalty.

Three of the six executions carried out this year in the United States took place in Texas.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2023-02-15

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