Andre Thomas’ clemency request comes as Democrats promote legislation that would make…
Lawyers for a man on Texas death row who while incarcerated tore out both of his own eyes and ate one of them filed a petition to Gov. Greg Abbott for commutation or a reprieve from his execution, which is scheduled for April.
In March 2004, Andre Thomas, then 21, fatally stabbed his wife, young son and step daughter in Sherman, and then proceeded to stab himself three times. Thomas had suffered throughout his life from severe schizophrenia, often manifesting through religious delusions or obsessions, his attorney said. While in jail for the crime, he followed the words of Matthew 5:29 that “if the right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee.”
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Later, while on death row after his conviction and sentencing from an all-white jury, he took out his other eye. That one, he ate, with his lawyers saying his motivation was to prevent the government from reading his thoughts.
“He is one of the most mentally ill prisoners in Texas history,” Thomas’ longtime lawyer, Maurie Levin, said in a news conference with reporters on Wednesday morning. “His mental illness is extreme, lifelong and continuing today.”
Lawyers for the state want to move forward with the execution in April. They are resisting legal efforts to delay, and they have in the past — after Thomas plucked out his first eye — argued that he was exaggerating his mental illness to avoid facing his sentence.
Levin said the state has resisted legal motions for lawyers to access Thomas’ medical records to try to prove his insanity in court, so a reprieve in this case would grant lawyers more time to argue before the courts that the man is unfit for execution.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that in order to be executed, a defendant must have a rational understanding of their crime and why they’re being punished for it, a standard meant to protect those who are not mentally “competent.”
Thomas is currently housed at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Wayne Scott Unit, where Levin said the state’s most mentally ill prisoners are held. Now 39, he receives a cocktail of antipsychotic medications, but he continues to experience intense hallucinations and religious delusions.
“I think that right now what we’re talking about is the undeniable reality that he is permanently mentally ill. And we’re talking about a question of mercy which is very different from the legal standard. So we are hopeful that the governor and the board will exercise mercy,” Levin said.
A spokesman for Abbott did not respond to a request for comment.
Thomas’ clemency request also comes as a Dallas Democrat is once again promoting legislation in the Texas House that would make people like him ineligible for capital convictions in the first place.
The legislation, carried by Rep. Toni Rose since 2017, has passed the Texas House each of the last two sessions with bipartisan support, but has not received hearings in the Senate. In 2021, it passed the House by a vote of 108-35.
The bill is not retroactive, so it would not apply directly to Thomas. But his case — with his manifest, severe mental illness — demonstrates exactly the situations that Rose’s bill would address.
“Severely mentally ill people had no choice of becoming ill, their moral culpability is far less than that of a defendant who has no mental impairment and who was aware and intended to commit capital murder. This bill will allow a jury to consider these important facts,” Rose said in a 2019 floor speech as she explained the bill’s purpose.
She also argued that the bill would save millions in legal expenses, as prosecutors often fight for years or decades to set execution dates, and that it would save families from languishing in years of legal limbo awaiting execution dates that may never come, as people with severe mental illness are often not found to be competent to face execution.
“This body is filled with people who are pro-life,” Rose said in a 2019 speech in the House. If you’re pro-life, be pro-life from the womb to the tomb. Don’t just be pro-life when a baby is in the womb.”
Faith leaders and mental health advocates joined Thomas’ lawyers in a Wednesday morning news conference. Greg Hansch, of the Texas chapter of the National Alliance for Mental Illness, called for the Legislature to support Rose’s bill. Hansch noted that Thomas struggled with severe mental illness throughout his life, attempting suicide when he was just 10.
His own mother encouraged him to kill himself again afterward, the clemency petition says, with her telling Thomas to try stepping in front of an 18-wheeler or cutting deeper on his wrists next time.
“It’s hard, if not impossible, to overcome severe mental illness without help from mental health services — the kind of help that Mr. Thomas sought and did not receive,” Hansch said. “We believe that allowing Mr. Thomas to be executed would violate the U.S. Constitution, it would violate Texas law, and it would violate basic human decency.”
Rev. Dr. Jaime Kowlessar, from Dallas, spoke on behalf of more than 100 Texas-based faith leaders from 12 denominations urging Abbott to grant clemency.
“The voice he heard in his head since he was a little boy drove him to this tragic act,” Kowlessar said. “Mr. Thomas is blind and affected by severe mental illness. In his vulnerable state, he is no danger to others and executing him would serve no legitimate purpose. Gov. Abbott should embrace a culture of life, and he should stop this execution.”
edward.mckinley@chron.com