Tyrone N. Butts
APE Reporter
SC High Court postpones execution for competency hearing
(Columbia-AP) July 9, 2004 - The South Carolina Supreme Court has postponed the execution of a man convicted of killing two students at a Greenwood elementary school.
The justices have ordered a hearing to determine if Jamie Wilson, 35, is competent to be put to death for killing the 8-year-old girls in September of 1988.
The US Supreme Court in June refused to stop the execution, but South C
rolina's High Court decided to order a competency hearing before setting an execution date.
No date has been set for that hearing, but it's expected to be several months.
Wilson&#
39;s mental state has been an issue ever since the then-19-year-old walked inside the Oakland Elementary School lu
nchroom and shot at students and adults with a handgun before walking into a classroom and firing more shots.
He killed Shequila Bradley and Tequila Thomas and injured seven other students and two teachers. He had been released from the psychiatric unit at Self Memorial Hospital five months before the shooting because his father's insurance no longer covered the bills.
Wilson pleaded guilty but mentally ill in a bid to spare his life, but a jury returned a death sentence.
Lawyers for Jamie Wilson say his mental illness kept him from understanding that the shooting at the school was wrong. They say he is not mentally competent to be executed and does not und
erstand his death sentence.
Lawyers from the state attorney general's office offered several examples from prison staff that they say show Wilson knows what is happening in his case.
Wilson's lawyers argued the then 19-year-old's mental illness led to the shooting. He had been released from a hospital psychiatric u
nit about five months before the shootings.
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If he shot any white kids or teachers, fry him!
T.N.B.
