MIAMI – Lawyers for death row inmate Duane Owen have appealed to the US Supreme Court to stay his execution, scheduled for June 15 in Florida, because he suffers from serious mental disorders, an argument already rejected in the southern state.
“Florida has little interest in seeing that sentences are carried out fairly and efficiently, but Owen, whose delusions and insanity prevent him from rationally understanding the consequences of his execution, has a right to make it conform to the Constitution,” the defense attorneys say in the appeal, as reported by the Florida Phoenix outlet on Tuesday.
“This right includes the ability to have meaningful judicial review of the complex constitutional claims it has timely raised,” they add.
Previously, seven Florida Supreme Court justices voted against staying Owen’s execution and one, Jorge Labarga, recused himself and did not vote for unknown reasons.
The lawyers argue that Owen suffers from serious mental problems that legally prevent him from being subjected to the death penalty.
All of his requests, including one for imaging tests to determine the state of his brain, were denied by the Florida Supreme Court.
Before that unsuccessful appeal to the Florida high court, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis agreed to temporarily stay the order of execution so that Owen could undergo a psychiatric examination.
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Psychiatrists Wade Myers, Tonia Werner and Emily Lazarou concluded that Owen “has the mental capacity to understand the death penalty and the reasons why it was imposed on him,” DeSantis said when he lifted the stay of execution on May 24, which It was again scheduled for June 15.
However, a neuropsychologist consulted by the defense ruled that his illness is real, not feigned.
Owen was convicted of the murders of Karen Slattery, a 14-year-old student, and Georgianna Worden, a mother of two, two separate events in Palm Beach County in 1984 that he confessed to committing when he was arrested that same year.
His lawyers cited in the appeal to the Florida Supreme Court “brain damage and insanity” and “denial of due process” among other reasons for staying the execution.
If Owen is executed it will be the fourth execution of the year and the 103rd since capital punishment was reinstated in Florida in 1976.
There are currently nearly 300 inmates on the state’s “death row,” as the place where those to be executed are known, according to data from the Florida Department of Corrections (Prisons).
The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops (FCCB) petitioned Governor DeSantis on May 31 to stay Owen’s execution and commute his sentence to life without parole.
“Taking the life of Mr. Owen will not restore the lives of the victims. Intentionally ending his life will only perpetuate violence in a society immersed in it,” the bishops’ letter reads.
