By RALPH BLUMENTHAL NOV. 23, 2006
Scott Louis Panetti, who shot his in-laws in 1992, during an interview from a Texas prison. The devil has been trying to rub me out, he said. Credit Michael Stravato for The New York Times
There is no dispute that Mr. Panetti is “profoundly mentally ill,” his lawyers Gregory W. Wiercioch, Keith S. Hampton and Michael C. Gross said in a petition seeking to overturn the Fifth Circuit ruling. In the decade before the murders, they said, he was hospitalized 14 times in six institutions for schizophrenia, manic depression, auditory hallucinations and delusions of persecution. Believing the devil was in his furniture, he buried it in the backyard, and thinking the devil was in the walls, he hallucinated that they were running with blood.
On Sept. 8, 1992, Mr. Panetti, dressed in military fatigues and carrying a sawed-off shotgun, a rifle and knives, invaded the Fredericksburg home where his estranged wife, Sonja Alvarado, had taken refuge with her parents, Joe and Amanda Alvarado. In front of his wife and their 3-year-old daughter, known as Birdie, he shot the Alvarados to death and took his wife and daughter captive before releasing them unharmed and surrendering.
In 1994, a first jury deadlocked on his mental competency, but a second found him able to stand trial.
Waiving legal counsel, Mr. Panetti represented himself, appearing in court in cowboy garb and seeking to subpoena Jesus before deciding “he doesn’t need a subpoena — he’s right here with me.” He attributed the killings to an alter ego named Sarge Ironhorse and, testifying in Sarge’s voice after calling himself as a witness, recounted the killings:
“Sarge is gone. No more Sarge. Sonja and Birdie. Birdie and Sonja. Joe, Amanda lying kitchen, here, there blood. No, leave. Scott, remember exactly what Sarge did. Shot the lock. Walked in the kitchen. Sonja, where’s Birdie? Sonja here. Joe, bayonet, door, Amanda. Boom, boom, blood, blood. Demons. Ha, ha, ha, ha, oh, lord, oh, you.”
When Judge Stephen B. Ables tried to cut him off, Mr. Panetti said, “You puppet.”
Mr. Panetti does appear to have moments of lucidity, and these disconcerted the juries at his competency hearing and trial, planting suspicions that he might have been faking.
“Not to make excuses,” he said in the death row interview, “but when someone’s insane, they’re insane.”
Asked in the interview if he understood he was on death row for crimes he committed, Mr. Panetti said: “Certainly not. They are in a strong delusionment. They’ll be undeceived by delusionment.”
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL NOV. 23, 2006
Scott Louis Panetti, who shot his in-laws in 1992, during an interview from a Texas prison. The devil has been trying to rub me out, he said. Credit Michael Stravato for The New York Times
There is no dispute that Mr. Panetti is “profoundly mentally ill,” his lawyers Gregory W. Wiercioch, Keith S. Hampton and Michael C. Gross said in a petition seeking to overturn the Fifth Circuit ruling. In the decade before the murders, they said, he was hospitalized 14 times in six institutions for schizophrenia, manic depression, auditory hallucinations and delusions of persecution. Believing the devil was in his furniture, he buried it in the backyard, and thinking the devil was in the walls, he hallucinated that they were running with blood.
On Sept. 8, 1992, Mr. Panetti, dressed in military fatigues and carrying a sawed-off shotgun, a rifle and knives, invaded the Fredericksburg home where his estranged wife, Sonja Alvarado, had taken refuge with her parents, Joe and Amanda Alvarado. In front of his wife and their 3-year-old daughter, known as Birdie, he shot the Alvarados to death and took his wife and daughter captive before releasing them unharmed and surrendering.
In 1994, a first jury deadlocked on his mental competency, but a
 second found him able to stand trial.
Waiving legal counsel, Mr. Panetti represented himself, appearing in court in cowboy garb and seeking to subpoena Jesus before deciding “he doesn’t need a subpoena — he’s right here with me.” He attributed the killings to an alter ego named Sarge Ironhorse and, testifying in Sarge’s voice after calling himself as a witness, recounted the killings:
“Sarge is gone. No more Sarge. Sonja and Birdie. Birdie and Sonja. Joe, Amanda lying kitchen, here, there blood. No, leave. Scott, remember exactly what Sarge did. Shot the lock. Walked in the kitchen. Sonja, where’s Birdie? Sonja here. Joe, bayonet, door, Amanda. Boom, boom, blood, blood. Demons. Ha, ha, ha, ha, oh, lord, oh, you.”
When Judge Stephen B. Ables tried to cut him off, Mr. Panetti said, “You puppet.”
Mr. Panetti does appear to have moments of lucidity, and these disconcerted the juries at his competency hearing and trial, planting suspicions that he might have been faking.
“Not to make excuses,” he said in the death row interview, “but when someone’s insane, they’re insane.”
Asked in the interview if he understood he was on death row for crimes he committed, Mr. Panetti said: “Certainly not. They are in a strong delusionment. They’ll be undeceived by delusionment.”