Eye guess he won't do that anymore

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/010909dntexinmateeye.17038ed.html

Texas death row inmate in psychiatric facility after pulling out eye, eating it HOUSTON — A Texas death row inmate with a history of mental problems pulled out his only good eye, authorities said Friday. Andre Thomas told officers he ate it. Thomas, 25, was arrested for the fatal stabbings of his estranged wife, their young son and her 13-month-old daughter in March 2004. Their hearts also had been ripped out. He was convicted and condemned for the infant's death. While in the Grayson County Jail in Sherman, Thomas similarly had plucked out his right eye before his trial later in 2004. A judge subsequently ruled he was competent to stand trial. A death-row officer at the Polunsky Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice found Thomas in his cell with blood on his face and had him taken to the unit infirmary. ""Thomas said he pulled out his eye and subsequently ingested it," agency spokesman Jason Clark said Friday. Thomas was treated at East Texas Medical Center in Tyler after the Dec. 9 incident. Then he was transferred and remains at the Jester Unit, a prison psychiatric facility near Richmond southwest of Houston. "He will finally be able to receive the mental health care that we had wanted and begged for from day 1," Bobbie Peterson-Cate, Thomas' trial attorney, told the Sherman Herald Democrat. "He is insane and mentally ill. It is exactly the same reason he pulled out the last one." At his trial, defense lawyers also argued he suffered from alcohol and drug abuse. Thomas does not have an execution date. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in October upheld his conviction and death sentence for the death of 13-month-old Leyha Marie Hughes. Also killed March 27, 2004, were his wife, Laura Christine Boren, 20, and their son, 4-year-old Andre Lee. Thomas, from Texoma, walked into the Sherman Police Department and told a dispatcher he had just murdered the three and had stabbed himself in the chest. Thomas told police how he put his victims' hearts in his pocket and left their apartment, took them home, put them in a plastic bag and threw them in the trash. Court documents described the three victims as having "large, gaping wounds to their chests."

Wow I am now disturbed

Death penalty supporters are fond of "an eye for an eye." Maybe he was just trying to cooperate.

ok...that turned my stomach a little

The squeaky wheel gets the grease...

Naw he ain't nuts, he just seems that way.

he's certainly got a high pain threshold.

why does he get the death penalty for the infant, but not for the other two? either this article is poorly written or he was only convicted of the infant's slaying. i don't give a berkeley either way. i support the death penalty for a lot more than just first degree murder.

AngryCorvair wrote: why does he get the death penalty for the infant, but not for the other two?

In Texas, you can only get the death penalty for capital murder, i.e., murder plus another element, e.g., killing a child (under 6, I think), while committing another felony or theft, killing a police officer, murder for hire, and a few others.

I've never seen the statistics, but my guess is that the vast majority of capital murders in Texas are murder plus robbery or rape, murder of a cop, and murder of a child.

Anyhow, assuming it was just an "I'm killing you because I'm a messed up SOB" killing, and there were none of the other laundry list present, only the murder of the child would be capital murder. The murder of the other two would be "murder" and punishable by a prison term from 5 to 99 years or life in prison (and possibly a fine).

The article also seems to suggest that he was only tried for the murder of the child, which is a not uncommon prosecution tactic so that if he were not convicted they could retry him for the other killings without double jeopardy.

I'm not normally pro-death penalty, but this guy is wasting our tax dollars.

This guy is why public hangings right outside the courthouse should be re-instituted...

Knew what this was about just by the title, and it goes to show it's not just our vintage cars that have a screw loose!

So I guess his eyes weren't bigger than his stomach.

Only in Texas would a guy like that NOT be concidered a loon.

Kramer wrote: So I guess his eyes weren't bigger than his stomach.

Well, he did have to have them in two separate servings.

He's just looking for a Section Ate

Am I the only one who read that and thought of the scene in the first "Pirates of the Carribbean" where one of the pirates had a fork stuck in his fake eye?