A Texas killer who shot his in-laws to death in front of his wife and daughter won a stay of execution Thursday from a divided U.S. Supreme Court because he is mentally ill.The court ruled 5-4 that Scott Panetti, a former ranch hand who suffers from schizophrenia, lacks the capacity to understand why he was sentenced to death.
"Gross delusions stemming from a severe mental disorder may put an awareness of a link between a crime and its punishment in a context so far removed from reality that the punishment can serve no proper purpose," wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy, author of the majority opinion.
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