Opinion ID: 2822804
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: conclusion

Text: Even assuming Mr. Cole made a substantial threshold showing of insanity, he is not entitled to any further process under Ford and Panetti because he has been afforded the opportunity to submit argument and evidence, including expert psychiatric evidence, and to reply to the evidence submitted by the state. The evidence submitted by Mr. Cole and the state show that he rationally understands his sentence and the reason for it and that he is capable of understanding matters in extenuation, arguments for clemency, and reasons why his sentence should not be carried out as required by section 552.060.1. Therefore, this Court denies Mr. Cole’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus on the merits and overrules his accompanying motion for a stay of execution as moot. _________________________________ PATRICIA BRECKENRIDGE, JUDGE Russell, C.J., Fischer and Wilson, JJ., concur; Stith, J., dissents in separate opinion filed; Draper and Teitelman, JJ., concur in opinion of Stith, J. 24 SUPREME COURT OF MISSOURI en banc STATE ex rel. ANDRE COLE, ) ) Petitioner, ) ) v. ) No. SC94880 ) CINDY GRIFFITH, WARDEN, ) POTOSI CORRECTIONAL CENTER, ) ) Respondent. ) DISSENTING OPINION
Andre Cole petitions this Court under Panetti v. Quarterman, 551 U.S. 930 (2007), and Ford v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 399 (1986), claiming that he has made a threshold showing that his execution would violate the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution because he is insufficiently competent to have a rational understanding of why he is being executed. The majority agrees that, once such a threshold showing is made, Ford and Panetti entitle Mr. Cole to a hearing on the issue of whether he is competent to be executed. But the majority incorrectly determines that the hearing to which he is entitled need not be an evidentiary one or even be in the form of a hearing at all. Rather, the majority concludes it simply can take the evidence Mr. Cole presents to this Court to support his threshold showing and use that evidence to make credibility determinations as to whom to believe and whose reports are entitled to more weight in the first instance and then itself decide the ultimate factual issue of whether Mr. Cole is incompetent. The majority opinion cites to no authority to support its conflation of the threshold showing and hearing stages of the Panetti analysis or for substituting this Court for a fact-finder on issues of credibility, and there is none. While Panetti held that the hearing need not have the formality of a trial, it reaffirmed that a “fair hearing” must follow a threshold showing. The weight of authority of cases addressing that issue interprets this as an evidentiary hearing. The majority does not cite any authority that states that an appellate court can consider the credibility of the threshold evidentiary showing and resolve factual disputes in lieu of having a hearing, as this Court now does. The majority is in error in all of these regards. For these reasons, I dissent. Because Mr. Cole has made a threshold showing of incompetence, this Court should stay Mr. Cole’s execution and appoint a special master who can conduct what Ford describes as a “fair hearing” to determine whether Mr. Cole’s current mental capacity bars his execution.
In Ford and Panetti, the United States Supreme Court set out the standard for granting a stay of execution in the face of a claim of incompetence. Such a claim does not second-guess the decision that the defendant was competent to be tried, nor does it attack his conviction. Panetti, 551 U.S. at 934. Rather, it assumes the validity of his conviction and addresses only whether mental health, medical, and other factors occurring since the conviction have rendered him incompetent to be executed because, as 2 the plurality in Ford explained, “the Eighth Amendment prohibits a State from carrying out a sentence of death upon a prisoner who is insane.” Ford, 477 U.S. at 409-10.