Staley, Steven Kenneth

420 S.W.3d 785
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 11, 2013
DocketAP-76,798, AP-76,868
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 420 S.W.3d 785 (Staley, Steven Kenneth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Staley, Steven Kenneth, 420 S.W.3d 785 (Tex. 2013).

Opinions

OPINION

ALCALA, J.,

delivered the opinion of the Court

in which PRICE, WOMACK, JOHNSON, and COCHRAN, JJ., joined. KELLER, P.J., filed a dissenting opinion in which HERVEY and KEASLER, JJ., joined. MEYERS, J., filed a dissenting opinion in which KELLER, P.J., and Hervey, J., joined.

In this case, we are asked to decide whether state or federal law disallows the execution of a mentally ill inmate who was previously found incompetent to be executed and later became competent only after he was involuntarily medicated pursuant to a court order. Steven Kenneth Staley, appellant,1 raises this question in a subsequent application for a writ of habeas corpus and a motion for review under Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 46.05.2 [787]*787See Tex.Code CRIM. PROC. arts. 11.071, § 5, & 46.05. Article 46.05 provides that a “person who is incompetent to be executed may not be executed” and permits appeal to this Court of a finding under that article. Tex.Code Crim. Proc. art. 46.05(a), (l). With respect to appellant’s motion for review, we conclude that this Court has jurisdiction over this appeal pursuant to the current competency-to-be-executed statute, including jurisdiction to review the involuntary-medication order to the extent that it is intertwined with the trial court’s ruling that appellant is now competent to be executed.3 As to the merits of the appeal, we hold that the trial court’s order mandating involuntary medication of appellant was not permitted under the competency-to-be-executed statute and did not meet the requirements of other statutes that may permit involuntary medication. Because the trial court lacked authority to render it, we vacate the trial court’s involuntary-medication order. Furthermore, we determine that, but for that unauthorized order, the evidence conclusively shows that appellant is incompetent to be executed, and, therefore, we also vacate the trial court’s order finding appellant competent to be executed.4

I. Background

In 1991, appellant was convicted of capital murder in Tarrant County. Appellant and two others rounded up a group of employees at a restaurant, threatened them with firearms, took their possessions, and then killed the manager after taking him hostage. A jury found appellant guilty and answered the special issues in the affirmative. After the trial court sentenced him to death, appellant exhausted his appellate remedies and was denied relief on two applications for a writ of habeas corpus.5 The trial court set his execution date for February 2006. Since then, the trial court has held two hearings on the matter of whether appellant is competent to be executed. He was found incompetent at the first hearing and competent at the second hearing.

A. The First Competency Hearing

The month before the scheduled execution in 2006, appellant filed a motion with the trial court challenging his competency to be executed pursuant to the then-applicable competency-to-be-executed statute. See former Tex.Code Crim. Proc. art. 46.05 (Vernon 2005). The trial court ordered a psychiatric evaluation of appellant.

The court held a hearing on appellant’s motion, at which the medical experts who had evaluated appellant, Dr. Randall Price and Dr. Mark Cunningham, testified. They explained that, although appellant understood that he was to be executed, he did not have a rational understanding of [788]*788the reason for his execution.6 They testified that he suffered a severe, chronic psychosis, namely paranoid schizophrenia, with which he had been routinely diagnosed for nearly 15 years, and that his condition had deteriorated over time. They stated that, since 1993, appellant had been prescribed various psychotropic medications, most notably Haloperidol (“Hal-dol”), in an effort to control the symptoms of his illness. However, they noted that he had not consistently complied with that prescription and, in the months preceding the competency evaluation, had frequently refused medication.

Dr. Cunningham, a clinical and forensic psychologist, testified that appellant had demonstrated numerous symptoms of psychosis over the course of many years, including self-inflicted injuries, grossly neglected personal hygiene, resting in his own excrement and urine, irregular eating and sleeping habits, including refusing food and fluids, delusions of paralysis, and lying on one spot in his cell so long as to rub a bald spot in the back of his head. He explained that appellant had a history of “spontaneously and repeatedly refusing medication” so that long-term stabilization “may well require” compulsory medication. He opined that it would be “good medical practice” to medicate appellant to control his symptoms.

Dr. Price, also a clinical and forensic psychologist, testified that appellant’s symptoms included “syntactical aphasia,” which he described as “word salad,” or the nonsensical ordering of words, as well as the regular use of fictitious language. He said that during those periods when appellant was compliant with his prescription, he showed no overt signs of decompensation, but that he had frequently refused medication because he denied his illness and believed the medication was an attempt to “poison” him.

Based on this testimony, the trial court ruled that appellant was incompetent to be executed. Afterward, the case was forwarded to this Court in accordance with the then-applicable statute. See id. at 46.05(k). The next day, the trial court withdrew the execution date.7 Nevertheless, appellant later filed a motion to stay the execution with this Court. This Court issued an order dismissing his motion as moot because the trial court had already withdrawn the execution date. Ex parte Staley, No. WR-87,034-03, 2006 WL 950261 (Tex.Crim.App. March 12, 2006) (per curiam). The order advised the trial court, however, of its statutory duty to conduct periodic evaluations of appellant. See id. (citing former Tex.Code Crim. Proc. art. 46.05(k) (Vernon 2005)).8

The following month, the State filed a motion with the trial court seeking invol[789]*789untary medication of appellant. In support, it cited both a medical purpose — to control the symptoms of appellant’s psychosis and ease his suffering as a result of his mental illness — and the State’s interest in enforcing the judgment. Appellant disputed both purposes. He challenged the medical purpose by arguing that psychotropic drugs can yield harmful side effects. He also contended that “artificial competence” achieved by medication does not constitute competence under the compe-teney-to-be-executed statute, the federal Constitution, or the Texas Constitution.

The trial court held a hearing at which it heard arguments from the State and appellant. Based largely on the evidence that had been introduced at the competency hearing, the trial court granted the motion and entered an order authorizing the involuntary medication of appellant.

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420 S.W.3d 785, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/staley-steven-kenneth-texcrimapp-2013.