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Ron Paul
Federal appeals court puts mentally ill Texas inmate's execution on hold

HOUSTON The gurney was cleaned, the needles were lined up. Scott Panetti was saying goodbye to his parents late Wednesday morning when the word came: For the second time in a little more than a decade his execution was being delayed with just hours to spare. A federal appeals court put the execution on hold so that it could consider "late arriving and complex legal questions" about the case, chiefly the argument that Panetti is too mentally ill to kill, even in Texas where executions are so common that a local radio station mentioned it just after a story about a new tax levy. Panetti, 56, once buried furniture in the back yard, convinced the devil was trying to kill him and his...