Texas Death Row Inmate Pulls Out Eye, Eats It
AP/TDOCJ A Texas death row inmate with a history of mental problems pulled out his only good eye, authorities said Friday. Andre Thomas told officers he ate it.
Thomas, 25, was arrested for the fatal stabbings of his estranged wife, their young son and her 13-month-old daughter in March 2004. Their hearts also had been ripped out.
While in the Grayson County Jail in Sherman, Thomas similarly had plucked out his right eye before his trial later in 2004. A judge subsequently ruled he was competent to stand trial.
A death-row officer at the Polunsky Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice found Thomas in his cell with blood on his face and had him taken to the unit infirmary.
“He will finally be able to receive the mental health care that we had wanted and begged for from day 1,” Bobbie Peterson-Cate, Thomas’ trial attorney, told the Sherman Herald Democrat. “He is insane and mentally ill. It is exactly the same reason he pulled out the last one.”
He wasn’t judged insane for the first eye? Or the hearts he ripped out? Oh, right, Texas justice.
I thought the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over thinking it would work?
This story doesn’t make any sense at all from so many perspectives.
The only way to achieve Justice in Texas is to become blind yourself?
This is a very special story.
Who cares? Any cold blooded murderer is insane. Doesn’t mean that you don’t hold them accountable for their actions.
Toast him.
Knowing he plucked out the first eye, they should’ve pumped his stomach to get the other one before it digested. Using microsurgery, they could’ve saved it.
This means he won’t be able to see the executioner throw the switch on ol’ sparky. Hope I never get stopped in Sherman, TX.
Good one, bobbo, about ‘blind justice.’
I imagine killing your wife and children and waiting for death might have an adverse effect on one’s mental health.
At least he will finally be able to receive the mental health care that the lawyers had wanted and begged for from day 1, before he is executed.
Btw, is there any chance you get to avoid death if you’re deemed insane?
RBG
#5–RBG==even in Texas if you are “deemed insane” you have a complete defense to a criminal charge and you are diverted to the mental health/medical side of the system. You might spend the rest of your life in a medical facility that is “part of” a prison, but the distinction is made.
Wrongly I think. I see no reason for mental capacity to absolve one of their crimes. It matters little to society if one is killed by intent or by defect. This highlights the “revenge” component of our legal system.
We have criminalized much of the mental health needs of our citizenry. Whacked out moralistic society that we are.
Could someone please point me to a news site that will spare us this crap. Why does everyone think they need to report this.
Here’s looking at you, kid.
either insane
or really willing to continue living
He plans on keeping an eye out for his lawyer.
#7, Here’s a news site that doesn’t report that stuff.
A few years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that insane people cannot be put to death.
I’ll bet the guy was a Democrat.
#13,
I’ll bet he didn’t know that he lived in the united states let alone what a democrat was.
If he’s mentally ill, then he doesn’t know we’re gonna kill him. Put him in the chair and tell him he’s at Disneyland. Enjoy the ride!
This guy should have been a surgeon.
#11 – Mr. Ray
>>#7, Here’s a news site that doesn’t
>>report that stuff.
Whoa! Yesterland! I love that Stevie Wonder song! That guy totally rocks!
What happened to the world we knew
When we would dream and scheme
And while the time away
Yesterme yesteryou yesterland
Where did it go that yester glow
When we could feel
The wheel of life turn our way
Yesterme yesteryou yesterland
I had a dream so did you life
Was warm and love was true
Two kids who followed all the rules
Yester folls and now
Now it seems those yester dreams
Were just a cruel
And foolish game we used to play
Yesterme yesteryou yesterland
When I recall what we had
I feel lost I feel sad with nothing but
The memory of yester love and now
Now it seems those yester dreams
Were just a cruel
And foolish game we had to play
Yesterme yesteryou yesterland
Yesterme yesteryou yesterland
Sing with me
Yesterme yesteryou yesterland
#11, Bubba Ray,
I like your news site better. That story is screwed up!
Good news though, he reports that his peptic ulcer is healing well and there are no suspicious polyps in his colon or rectum. He also warned authorities of a large crack in the sewer mains, about 30 miles southwest of the prison.
He’s on a diet. Watching what he eats. Or vice versa.
All I could say was, WOW.
About the Insanity Plea.
The whole “Not guilty by reason of insanity” goes along the philosophical line that if you’re incapable of understanding that you committed a crime, then you cannot be tried for that crime. (I wish I could use this argument at every speed trap I encounter. “Why officer, I was unaware that this 15 feet of roadway was only 25 MPH while the rest is 55.” “Sorry”, says officer WriteEmUp, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse”.)
For me, the result in this case, insane or not, would be the same. Lock him up in a 7’X10′ cell for the rest of his life. This guy can never be let back on the street again.
I think somebody slipped the guy a “Catch 22” DVD: “A man is trying desperately to be certified insane during World War II, so he can stop flying missions.” “This catch keeps Yossarian in the war because a concern for one’s own life proved that he is not really crazy, and to get out of combat you have to be crazy.”
Or was that MASH and Cpl. Klinger? Trivia: The movie MASH and Catch 22 were released the same year.
RBG
To the guy that posted this.
I’d be more than happy to let this guy out. When can you pick him up?
If he hurts anybody due to your carelessness I think you ought to be thrown to starving bear.
Just so we understand each other.
He may be guilty for reasons of insanity but he isn’t innocent and he is and will be threat to the safety of eveybody around him including himself for as long as he lives.
If you are nuts enough to want him you are welcome to him but if you take him you owe blood dept if he hurts somebody.
That’s the way I see it.
throw a rope into his cell and see what games he can play
Of course he’s a Democrat. They’re the party that recruits voters in prisons.
To the guy who posted #24.
Sarcasm is wasted these days. The comments were meant as a criticism of the judicial system (such as it is) in the Great State Of Texas.
This state enforces capital punishment. I have no opinion on whether or not it’s OK to execute a man who is obviously totally insane.
And, just so you know, I’m a Texan.
#26 – Lyin’ Mike
>>They’re the party that recruits voters in
>>prisons.
Oh, there you go lyin’, Mike. Everybody knows that only Maine and Vermont allowed incarcerated individuals to vote, and there aren’t enough Dems in Maine or Vermont to make it worth their while.
On the other hand, Repubs are more likely to GO to prison, what with all their corruption, so that would be a more productive line of activity, I would think.
Source: Maine Secretary of State’s Office
Registered voters as of June 5, 2008
Total: 907,650 registered voters
293,296 Democrats (32 percent)
252,963 Republicans (28 percent)
335,876 Independents (37 percent)
25,515 Green (3 percent)
New registered voters since Jan. 1, 2007
Democrats: 6,517
Green: 595
Independents: 5,32
Republicans: 2,272
I can’t give stats on Vermont, as Vermont has no party registration. But looking at the FACTS, it appears that Democrats out number Republicans in Maine.
#30 – FTM
Yes, the Dems slightly outnumber the Repubs in Maine, but the overall NUMBER is chump change.
The total number of registered voters in the whole state of Maine is about 1/2 the number of NEWLY registered voters in Ohio between Jan and Sep of 2008.
From an Associated Press article:
“Cuyahoga, Franklin and Hamilton counties — the state’s largest, respectively — saw the most new voters, in that order. Cuyahoga, a heavily Democratic county, saw its voting rolls increase by about 123,000 voters since Jan. 1 to a total of roughly 1.1 million.”
Here’s the full article:
http://www.ohio.com/news/ohiocentric/30627849.html