Three scheduled executions in May—Osvaldo Torres in Oklahoma, Kelsey Patterson in Texas, and Sammy Perkins in North Carolina—raise troubling questions about the application of the death penalty.

Torres is a Mexican foreign national whose execution is scheduled for May 18, just weeks after the International Court of Justice ruled that the United States should review the cases of 51 Mexican foreign nationals on death row in the U.S., including Torres’s case. At issue is whether the U.S. violated the rights of Mexican foreign nationals by not complying with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. A statement from the Mexican government read, “The government of Mexico calls on U.S. federal authorities to immediately take measures intended to protect the life of Osvaldo Torres, complying with the order of the World Court.” (Associated Press, March 2, 2004)

Kelsey Patterson is a paranoid schizophrenic with a long history of mental health problems, including several hospitalizations in the years leading up to the 1992 murder for which he is on death row. His execution is also scheduled for May 18. A recent Amnesty International report detailing Patterson’s case notes that in 2000, a federal judge noted that “Patterson had no motive for the killings… he claims he commits acts involuntarily and outside forces control him through implants in his brain and body. Patterson has consistently maintained he is a victim of an elaborate conspiracy, and his lawyers and his doctors are part of that conspiracy. He refuses to cooperate with either; he has refused to be examined by mental health professionals since 1984, he refuses dental treatment, and he refuses to acknowledge that his lawyers represent him.” (Amnesty International Press Release, March 18, 2004) Read the Amnesty Report on Kelsey Patterson.

North Carolina plans to execute Sammy Perkins, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1997, on May 21. At Perkins’ trial, psychiatrist Billy Royal testified that Perkins’s mental illness in combination with his consumption of both prescribed and illicit drugs and alcohol impaired his ability to distinguish right from wrong, make plans, or premeditate his actions. (National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty)

See Upcoming Executions. See also Foreign Nationals; Mental Illness.