Alabama execution stays on hold as officials complete court-ordered psychiatric evaluation

The scheduled execution of an Alabama Death Row inmate will not go forward next week as the state waits for the completion of a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation.

A judge last month stayed the Aug. 21 execution of David Lee Roberts until a mental evaluation could be conducted to see if Roberts is competent to be executed. The Alabama Department of Corrections said Friday that the report will not be completed by the scheduled Aug. 21 execution date.

“As a result, the Department anticipates that the execution scheduled for August 21 will not occur on that date. Accordingly, the Department has halted all preparations for Mr. Roberts’ currently scheduled execution,” prison system officials wrote in a press release.

Roberts, 59, was scheduled to be put to death next week by nitrogen gas, a method Alabama began using last year. He was convicted of killing Annetra Jones in 1992.

Attorneys representing Roberts argued that his death sentence should be suspended due to severe mental illness. Roberts has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, hears voices and is delusional, they wrote in a court filing. He also recently attempted to burn tattoos off his arm and leg because he believed they “are trying to control his thoughts,” his lawyers wrote.

In 1992, Roberts was a houseguest at Jones’ boyfriend’s home in Marion County. Prosecutors said that on the afternoon of April 22, he came to the home, packed his belongings, stole money and shot Jones three times in the head with a .22 caliber rifle while she slept on the couch. He then set the house on fire after dousing Jones’ body and the floor with a flammable liquid, prosecutors said.

Jurors convicted Roberts of capital murder and voted 7-5 to recommend that he receive life in prison without parole. A judge overrode that and sentenced him to death. Alabama no longer allows judges to override jury sentences in capital cases.

Twenty-eight men have died by court-ordered execution so far this year in the United States. At least nine other people across seven states are scheduled to be put to death this year.

The number of executions carried out this year exceeds the 25 carried out last year and in 2018. It is the highest total since 2015, when 28 people were put to death.