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| Court Alters Outlook for Death Row's Mentally Ill |
| By LA Times |
| Published: 09/17/2002 |
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A death row inmate who claims there is a computer in his head and a telephone in his shoulder is so mentally ill that the California Supreme Court has appointed a legal guardian for him. The appointment, quietly made by the high court in a closed conference, is unprecedented in California and may affect whether the inmate can eventually be executed. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that it is unconstitutional to execute the insane. The court appointed a guardian for Jon Scott Dunkle, 41, on the advice of a Superior Court judge whom it had asked to determine his current mental state. That judge, who found Dunkle mentally incompetent, had presided over Dunkle's 1989 murder trial and sentenced him to death--despite his repeated commitments to a mental hospital and defense attorneys' contentions that he frequently lost touch with reality. Dunkle, who was convicted of murdering three boys, is so deranged that he cannot fully understand the nature of his legal appeals or assist his lawyers, San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Judith Whitmer Kozloski reported to the California Supreme Court in March 2000. |
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