The State of Texas Is the Cross-Eyed Homunculus Playing the Banjo on the Porch of These United States

Scott Panetti was a day away from being put to death when the execution was stayed three years ago. Now the former Poynette High School football star is poised to make mental health history.

The U.S. Supreme Court will take up his case on Wednesday. . . .

Panetti, 49, who has been treated for schizophrenia since 1981, shot his wife's parents to death in Texas in 1992. His first trial ended in a hung jury, with 10 of the jurors deciding that Panetti was insane.

He defended himself at the second murder trial, in which he wore a purple cowboy suit and issued subpoenas to the pope, Jesus Christ and President Kennedy. Panetti, who has not taken medication in more than 13 years, tells doctors that he is being killed for preaching the Bible from his Texas prison cell. . . .

The state argues that because Panetti is aware that he committed the murders and that he is being put to death, his execution is constitutional. It does not matter that he thinks he is being put to death for preaching the Bible and therefore does not have a rational understanding. Any test beyond simply understanding that he is to be put to death would invite malingering and abuse, the state says. . . .

Panetti's troubles started in his senior year, his mother said. He dropped out of school near the end of his senior year after a fight with an assistant principal. He joined the Navy in the intelligence unit but dropped out after he started imagining the government was plotting to kill him.

He was diagnosed with schizophrenia at that time and was hospitalized for a time at the Department of Veterans Affairs facility in Tomah. He moved to Texas, married, was divorced and remarried. Sonja Alvarado, his second wife, was so worried that he would do something violent that she tried to have the police in their town of Fredericksburg, Texas, take his guns away. They refused. A few days later, Panetti killed Alvarado's mother and father.

If Sonja Alvarado thought a police force in Texas was going to take away a man's guns, she's crazier than her ex-husband. Someone should keep an eye on her.

I'm just saying.