District Attorney press release
Wednesday, the Court of Criminal Appeals continued a stay of execution for Randall Wayne Mays pending the outcome of competency proceedings in the 392nd District Court.
The Court of Criminal Appeals originally issued the stay in March of this year, just two days before Mays was set to be executed for the 2007 shooting deaths of Henderson County Sheriff’s Deputies Tony Ogburn and Paul Habelt.
In today’s ruling, the Court of Criminal Appeals found Mays made “a substantial showing that he is incompetent to be executed” and ordered further competency hearings including the appointment of mental health experts.
In a dissenting opinion by Presiding Judge Sharon Keller and Judge Lawrence Meyers, Judge Keller stated “Appellant has produced evidence that he is mentally ill, but he has produced no evidence that he fails to understand (1) that he is to be executed and the execution is imminent or (2) the reason he is to be executed.”
In their dissenting opinion, the judges further stated that there is not “any evidence that anyone has asked him if he understands that he is being executed for the capital murder of two peace officers.”
Under Texas law, a defendant is incompetent to be executed if (1) he does not understand that he is to be executed and that his execution is imminent, and (2) he does not understand the reason for his execution.
District Attorney Scott McKee learned of the opinion early Wednesday morning and is working with the defense on lining up the experts necessary to evaluate Mays.
McKee stated that the law on competency to be executed is an area of law that needed a clear opinion from the Court of Criminal Appeals to address some ambiguity concerning what types of evidence a trial court can consider and the proper standard of review of a trial court’s ruling on a substantial showing of competency.
In his brief to the Court of Criminal Appeals, McKee pointed out the ambiguity in prior Court of Criminal Appeals cases. In addressing a previous case in his brief McKee wrote, “Although the court stated that it had determined the appropriate appellate and trial court standards, the court never specifically stated what the standard of review is … This is precisely the question before this court. What is the standard of review of a trial court’s denial of a competency-to-be-executed motion at the threshold stage.”
McKee believes this question may be why it took so long for the Court of Criminal Appeals to issue its ruling.
“Those of us in the legal world that litigate capital murder cases needed this ruling to clear up this area of the law. Now that we have the court’s opinion, we can take the next step towards bringing this case to a final resolution for the families of Paul Habelt and Tony Ogburn and our community,” he said.
According to McKee, the next step in the process is for 392nd District Judge Carter Tarrance to appoint mental health experts to evaluate Mays to determine if he is competent to be executed. Once those evaluations are complete, the court will hold a hearing to make the determination. McKee indicated that he is working to get the experts appointed and a hearing scheduled as quickly as possible.