Don't Execute Mentally Ill Inmate in Florida
- by: Care2.com
- recipient: Florida Supreme Court
John Ferguson is a paranoid schizophrenic who believes he is the "Prince of God" and will be resurrected to eternally sit by God's right hand. Even though the U.S. Supreme Court prohibits the execution of mentally ill inmates like Ferguson, Florida has scheduled his lethal injection.
Judge Glant knows Ferguson suffers from a long history of mental illness. His hallucinations, schizophrenic episodes, and general detachment from reality didn't stop Judge Clant from declaring him fit to execute.
In fact, Judge Clant wasn't concerned about Ferguson's belief that he is the Prince of God, saying that such a belief is a "relatively normal part of Christianity."
In 1975, against Ferguson's doctor's recommendations, he was released from a psychiatric hospital and committed the first of his murders shortly after. Ferguson has clearly suffered from a failure of the system.
Tell the Florida Supreme Court: John Ferguson needs psychiatric treatment, not an unconstitutional death sentence!
Dear Florida Supreme Court,
Judge David Glant's ruling to execute inmate John Ferguson completely violates federal law, thereby ignoring Ferguson's constitutional rights. There is no doubt that Ferguson suffers from an invasive and long standing mental illness that influences his actions--yet you still claim that he understands the reality of his crime and his punishment.
Ferguson believes he is the prince of god and will return to the earth after death to purify it as god's right hand man. He does not believe this metaphorically or due to spiritual reverence; he believes this delusionally--in a way that trained psychiatrists have argued deems him unfit for execution.
His murders were committed because he was removed from the psychiatric care necessary to treat his condition. In fact, he committed his first murder following his premature release from a hospital in 1975.
Within federal law, John Ferguson should not be considered for lethal injection. Within common sense thinking, he has a mental illness that strongly influences his thought processes and the resulting actions. 
