Abdul Awkal Execution Scheduled For June 6, Despite Claims Of Mental Illness (UPDATE)

The Ohio Supreme Court denied a request today to stop Wednesday's execution of a convicted murderer whose lawyers say he's mentally ill.

The state high court's decision to refuse a mental competency exam for Abdul Awkal cleared the way for officials to put him to death as scheduled for the 1992 shooting deaths of his estranged wife and brother-in-law.

Lawyers for Awkal scrambled Tuesday afternoon to find another way to save the death row inmate who they said believes he's a key adviser to the CIA and White House in the war on terrorism. They plan to file last ditch appeals in federal court and with Gov. John Kasich, who last week denied a request for clemency.

"We're going to push to save his life," said attorney David Singleton of the Ohio Justice and Policy Center. "The execution's going to happen tomorrow unless we can get it stopped."

Awkal, 53, killed his spouse Latife Awkal and brother-in-law Mahmoud Abdul-Aziz at a Cleveland courthouse during the couple's messy breakup in 1992. Authorities said the killing was motivated by a custody dispute over the couple's daughter who was a toddler at the time.

Starting in 2001, Awkal began writing letters from prison to the CIA and the White House, claiming to have valuable intelligence about terrorists. Awkal, according to psychiatrist Dr. Pablo Stewart's recent evaluation, believes he received coded messages from the CIA and the president via TV shows on CBS and NASA's channel.

"The question is not whether you are competent then, but whether you are competent now [at time of execution]," said Awkal's attorney David Singleton, also the head of the Ohio Justice and Policy Center. "He's got substantial delusions ... He thinks he's the hero trying to save the world."

The justices handed down a split decision Tuesday. Two of the seven justices dissented from the majority and said Awkal should be reevaluated by a psychiatrist who's expressed doubts about his finding last month at Awkal is mentally sound to be executed.

Attorneys for Awkal contended that it would be cruel and unusual punishment to use the death penalty against him, because he's "severely mentally ill" and has "delusions that prevent him from having a rational understanding of the reason for his execution," according to Stewart's affidavit.

The opinion from Stewart diagnosed Awkal with schizoaffective disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, and said both were possibly the result of a childhood spent with an extremely violent father in war-torn Lebanon.

But two other evaluations filed by doctors who examined Awkal before Stewart determined that he was mentally competent.

"Although Mr. Awkal delusionally believes that the CIA has orchestrated measures to harass him in prison, his delusional beliefs do not currently interfere with his ability to rationally understand the reasons the death penalty was imposed in his
case," said an opinion by doctors Jennifer Piel and Phillip Resnick earlier in May.

Resnick, however, has wavered in that view since reading Stuart's report, according to Singleton.

UPDATE 7:06 p.m. -- This story has been updated to reflect the court's decision to refuse a new competency test

Earlier on HuffPost:

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