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Raymond Riles has been on death row since *1976* When I started covering the row, ppl told me that's bc everyone knew he was “insane" - he thinks he’s God or King Moto-Cherry.
So why has he - and others like him - been left to rot on the row for decades? https://www.themarshallproject.org/2021/02/04/he-s-too-mentally-ill-to-execute-why-is-he-still-on-death-row-after-45-years
So why has he - and others like him - been left to rot on the row for decades? https://www.themarshallproject.org/2021/02/04/he-s-too-mentally-ill-to-execute-why-is-he-still-on-death-row-after-45-years
One reason is the "Ford claims" (the kind of appeals prisoners make when they're too mentally ill too execute) don't get a prisoner taken off the row. They only work to avoid an execution, but then the person just goes back to death row until they maybe someday become competent.
Of course, death row involves near-constant isolation so people typically become LESS competent, not more. For example: https://twitter.com/keribla/status/1356360355245654019?s=20
This also puts lawyers in the uncomfortable position of knowing that if they let their clients suffer untreated they can avoid death - but if they encourage them to take their meds it could just mean execution. Dick Burr (who argued the Ford case referenced above) explained:
But another reason that people not competent to execute can end up languishing on the row for so long is bc of the attorneys - not bc they're lazy, but bc they're afraid to do anything that could draw attention to their client.
“Sometimes you have tacit agreements between the parties that the best way to address this is to do nothing,” said @RDunhamDPIC.
Often, these agreements are unspoken - but occasionally lawyers talk about them, like the lawyer for Emanuel Kemp did a few years ago when the DA set an execution date after years of agreeing not to. https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Very-psychotic-Fort-Worth-killer-who-hijacked-13079294.php
And former Harris County prosecutor Roe Wilson talked about it some in 1999 - and the idea that these men were just quietly sitting on the row bc no one was touching their cases was such a revelation it was a front-page story.
Three of the five men referenced in that 1999 are STILL on the row, two decades later. A fourth has died and a fifth was removed. But now Riles - the longest-serving death row prisoner in the country - might get removed too.
This week the DA announced that she's supporting his request for a new punishment, so he could be resentenced to life - if the courts agree.
Here's some more background on his case: https://twitter.com/keribla/status/1289975249421758464?s=20
Here's some more background on his case: https://twitter.com/keribla/status/1289975249421758464?s=20
And finally, if you would like to know more, I wrote this article w/ @MauriceChammah who just released a whole book on the death penalty in Texas. https://www.amazon.com/Let-Lord-Sort-Them-Penalty/dp/1524760269
