Texas Death Row Inmate Pulls Out Eye, Eats It
AP/TDOCJ A Texas death row inmate with a history of mental problems pulled out his only good eye, authorities said Friday. Andre Thomas told officers he ate it.
Thomas, 25, was arrested for the fatal stabbings of his estranged wife, their young son and her 13-month-old daughter in March 2004. Their hearts also had been ripped out.
While in the Grayson County Jail in Sherman, Thomas similarly had plucked out his right eye before his trial later in 2004. A judge subsequently ruled he was competent to stand trial.
A death-row officer at the Polunsky Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice found Thomas in his cell with blood on his face and had him taken to the unit infirmary.
“He will finally be able to receive the mental health care that we had wanted and begged for from day 1,” Bobbie Peterson-Cate, Thomas’ trial attorney, told the Sherman Herald Democrat. “He is insane and mentally ill. It is exactly the same reason he pulled out the last one.”
He wasn’t judged insane for the first eye? Or the hearts he ripped out? Oh, right, Texas justice.
I thought the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over thinking it would work?
This story doesn’t make any sense at all from so many perspectives.
The only way to achieve Justice in Texas is to become blind yourself?
This is a very special story.
Who cares? Any cold blooded murderer is insane. Doesn’t mean that you don’t hold them accountable for their actions.
Toast him.
Knowing he plucked out the first eye, they should’ve pumped his stomach to get the other one before it digested. Using microsurgery, they could’ve saved it.
This means he won’t be able to see the executioner throw the switch on ol’ sparky. Hope I never get stopped in Sherman, TX.
Good one, bobbo, about ‘blind justice.’
I imagine killing your wife and children and waiting for death might have an adverse effect on one’s mental health.
At least he will finally be able to receive the mental health care that the lawyers had wanted and begged for from day 1, before he is executed.
Btw, is there any chance you get to avoid death if you’re deemed insane?
RBG
#5–RBG==even in Texas if you are “deemed insane” you have a complete defense to a criminal charge and you are diverted to the mental health/medical side of the system. You might spend the rest of your life in a medical facility that is “part of” a prison, but the distinction is made.
Wrongly I think. I see no reason for mental capacity to absolve one of their crimes. It matters little to society if one is killed by intent or by defect. This highlights the “revenge” component of our legal system.
We have criminalized much of the mental health needs of our citizenry. Whacked out moralistic society that we are.
Could someone please point me to a news site that will spare us this crap. Why does everyone think they need to report this.
Here’s looking at you, kid.
either insane
or really willing to continue living
He plans on keeping an eye out for his lawyer.
#7, Here’s a news site that doesn’t report that stuff.
A few years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that insane people cannot be put to death.
I’ll bet the guy was a Democrat.
#13,
I’ll bet he didn’t know that he lived in the united states let alone what a democrat was.
If he’s mentally ill, then he doesn’t know we’re gonna kill him. Put him in the chair and tell him he’s at Disneyland. Enjoy the ride!
This guy should have been a surgeon.
#11 – Mr. Ray
>>#7, Here’s a news site that doesn’t
>>report that stuff.
Whoa! Yesterland! I love that Stevie Wonder song! That guy totally rocks!
What happened to the world we knew
When we would dream and scheme
And while the time away
Yesterme yesteryou yesterland
Where did it go that yester glow
When we could feel
The wheel of life turn our way
Yesterme yesteryou yesterland
I had a dream so did you life
Was warm and love was true
Two kids who followed all the rules
Yester folls and now
Now it seems those yester dreams
Were just a cruel
And foolish game we used to play
Yesterme yesteryou yesterland
When I recall what we had
I feel lost I feel sad with nothing but
The memory of yester love and now
Now it seems those yester dreams
Were just a cruel
And foolish game we had to play
Yesterme yesteryou yesterland
Yesterme yesteryou yesterland
Sing with me
Yesterme yesteryou yesterland
#11, Bubba Ray,
I like your news site better. That story is screwed up!
Good news though, he reports that his peptic ulcer is healing well and there are no suspicious polyps in his colon or rectum. He also warned authorities of a large crack in the sewer mains, about 30 miles southwest of the prison.
He’s on a diet. Watching what he eats. Or vice versa.