Judge Rules Schizophrenic AZ Death Row Inmate Competent For Execution

PHOENIX, AZ — A Pinal County Superior Court judge on Tuesday ruled that Arizona death row inmate Clarence Dixon is competent to face execution, despite his lawyers' claims that the schizophrenic man is too delusional to fully understand why he's going to be killed.

Dixon is scheduled to die May 11. He will be the first person executed by Arizona since 2014.

Dixon was convicted in 2008 of the 1978 rape and murder of 21-year-old Arizona State University student Deana Bowdoin.

Judge Robert Olson acknowledged in Tuesday's ruling that Dixon has paranoid schizophrenia, but said that didn't stop him from comprehending his upcoming execution or the reasons for it.

Dixon's lawyers argued that Arizona's "competency-for-execution standard fails to take into account whether the prisoner has a rational understanding of the State’s reasons for executing him, as the Eighth Amendment requires."

Dixon's lawyers plan to appeal the ruling to the Arizona Supreme Court.

"We will ask the Arizona Supreme Court to apply the correct standard and ensure that Mr. Dixon is not executed while mentally incompetent in violation of the Eighth Amendment,” Eric Zuckerman, one of Dixon's attorneys, said in a statement.

The Arizona Board of Executive Clemency last week voted unanimously to deny clemency to Dixon after an hourslong hearing. During the hearing, Dixon's lawyers said that he should not have been allowed to represent himself during his 2008 trial, because he was not mentally competent to do so. Ultimately, the board agreed with the trial judge that Dixon was mentally competent to represent himself, despite his mental illness.