By a vote of 3 - 2, the Indiana Supreme Court has stayed the
>execution of Norman Timberlake, presumably pending the outcome of
>the U.S. Supreme Court's review of Panetti v. Quarterman to decide
>whether it is constitutional to execute an individual who is "aware"
>that they are about to be executed because they were convicted of
>murder, but who suffers from a delusion that affects their rational
>understanding of why they are being killed. Timberlake's lawyers
>have not yet seen the Court's order and do not have any more
>information, except that the justices voting to stay were Rucker,
>Boehm and Dickson, with Shepard and Sullivan
>dissenting. Timberlake's lawyers are headed to federal court for
>their evidentiary hearing on lethal injection, although it is
>possible that the federal judge will postpone that in light of the
>stay of execution.
>
>Paula Sites
>Assistant Executive Director
>Indiana Public Defender Council
>309 W. Washington, Ste. 401
>Indianapolis, IN 46204
>317-232-2490
>Fax 317-232-5524
>psites@iquest.net
>http://www.in.gov/pdc

Execution off; killer’s fate tied to Texas case

By Rick Callahan
Associated Press
Thu, Jan. 18, 2007

INDIANAPOLIS – A convicted murderer who argued he should be spared from his death sentence because of his mental illness was granted a stay of execution Wednesday after the state’s highest court said it wanted to wait for a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a similar case.

Norman Timberlake, 59, had been scheduled to die Friday by lethal injection for the 1993 slaying of a state trooper.

The Indiana Supreme Court said Timberlake’s case could be affected by the Texas case of Scott Louis Panetti, convicted of killing his estranged wife’s parents in 1992. Panetti’s attorneys have said he has suffered from severe mental illness for 25 years.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on Panetti’s case, expected this summer, could change the standard for executing mentally ill patients by offering a new interpretation of the Eighth Amendment, which bans cruel and unusual punishment.

Timberlake’s attorneys have argued he should not die because he is insane and therefore does not qualify for the death penalty.

The 3-2 vote to grant the stay came a day after the Indiana Parole Board unanimously recommended Gov. Mitch Daniels deny clemency to Timberlake, of New Albany.

Timberlake was sentenced to death in 1995 for the Feb. 5, 1993, shooting of Master Trooper Michael E. Greene, 43, along Interstate 65 on Indianapolis’ northwest side during a routine traffic stop. Timberlake has maintained his innocence, blaming Greene’s shooting on a traveling companion.

In voting to deny clemency, parole board member Randall Gentry said there was no evidence Timberlake was mentally ill at the time of the shooting.

Timberlake’s attorney, Lorinda Youngcourt, said she met Wednesday with Timberlake at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. She said he was relieved, but not elated, by the news that the court had agreed to delay his execution.

“Because of his mental problems, he is not a very emotional guy,” she said.

A statement released by the Indiana State Police on behalf of Greene’s family said they were “deeply saddened” by the court’s decision.

“The delay of justice for the murder committed by Timberlake has eroded our faith in the criminal justice system,” the statement said.

Death-penalty opponents argue that few people qualify for execution under the court’s current definition of mental illness because they must be incapable of understanding why they are being put to death or what they did wrong.

“If the Supreme Court interprets the Eighth Amendment in a manner significantly different ... Timberlake’s execution may prove to be prohibited by the Eighth Amendment. We grant a stay to prevent learning the answer to that question after it is too late,” Justice Brent Dickson wrote.

During a Jan. 8 appearance before the state parole board on his clemency request, Timberlake said he has been hearing voices since 1997 from someone who identifies himself as Satan. He also said he is under the control of a machine.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fast fact

• The last time the Indiana Supreme Court granted a stay in a capital case was in 1995, when Gary Burris was to be executed for killing Indianapolis taxi driver, according to court records.

The reprieve was granted to give Burris more time to file an additional motion for post-conviction relief. He was executed in November 1997.

Don’t let Indiana execute a profoundly sick prisoner

The News Sentinel
Fri, Jan. 26, 2007

Although a judge has stayed the execution of Indiana prisoner Norman Timberlake, his sentence has not been commuted to life in prison. He was sentenced to death in Marion County for the February 1993 shooting of Michael Greene, an Indiana State Police trooper who stopped Timberlake for drunken driving. This man was and is suffering from severe paranoid schizophrenia and is psychotic.

The facts are as follows:

- Timberlake is incompetent to be executed, because he suffers from chronic paranoid schizophrenia, is actively psychotic and suffers from hallucinations. He believes he is being tortured by a machine and is being executed so that the existence of the machine will remain secret. This schizophrenia has been present and observable since he was first incarcerated 13 years ago.

- No mental health evidence was put on at trial as a mitigating factor, and, in fact, no evidence was put on by the defense at his trial penalty phase, the part of the trial at which the jury determined he should be sentenced to death.

- He was denied due process in the Indiana courts because the Indiana Supreme Court refused to appoint and pay counsel to represent him in state proceedings challenging his competence to be executed, refused to grant him funds to hire a mental-health expert to assist his volunteer attorneys, refused to allow his volunteer attorneys to discuss his case with its court-appointed psychiatrist and did not hold a hearing before issuing a decision based on the report of its court-appointed psychiatrist.

- He has been unable to assist his pro-bono counsel in his defense due to his delusions and hallucinations.

Of course, shooting a police officer is one of the most heinous crimes that can be committed. But executing a severely delusional and psychotic man who does not even understand the execution process or exactly why he is being executed is unconscionable. Indiana should not join the ranks of states willing to execute such prisoners.

Timberlake’s appeal now surrounds the notion of whether he is sane enough to be executed. Two horrific wrongs certainly will never add up to right! NAMI Fort Wayne pleads with Gov. Mitch Daniels to not permit this act by the state of Indiana and to commute Norman Timberlake’s sentence to life in prison without parole.

The American Bar Association, American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, Mental Health of America, National Alliance on Mental Illness and other organizations have banded together and agreed on definitions and a resolution outlawing the execution of a person who is severely mentally ill and psychotic at the time of a capital crime. Our national laws are swiftly moving in the direction to add severe mental illness to the existing list of exemptions for those who are mentally retarded and those younger than age 18.

NAMI Fort Wayne pleads with the residents of Indiana: Please do not allow Timberlake to be the last seriously mentally ill person to be put to death in Indiana. Please, Gov. Daniels, let that barbaric practice be stopped now under your watch.

Associated Press
MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. — Norman Timberlake, convicted of fatally shooting a state trooper during a traffic stop, was founded dead in his death row cell on Saturday 10 months after being spared execution.


An Indiana State Prison guard found Timberlake 60, of New Albany, unresponsive in his cell during a head count shortly after midnight, prison spokesman Barry Nothstine said. Attempts to revive him failed.

“Timberlake was sitting upright watching television but did not respond to verbal communication from an officer,” Nothstine said in a news release.

Timberlake appeared to die from natural causes, and an autopsy was planned for Tuesday, Nothstine said.

The prison spokesman said he was unaware of any medical conditions that might have contributed to Timberlake’s death.

A state psychiatrist who examined Timberlake last year found that he suffered from chronic paranoid schizophrenia, but it was unclear Saturday if that played a role in his death.

Timberlake was convicted of shooting Master Trooper Michael Greene once in the chest in Indianapolis in 1993. Greene, 43, had stopped when he saw Timberlake’s companion urinating along Interstate 65. A jury convicted Timberlake two years later.
Indiana State Police had no comment on Timberlake’s death, and Greene’s family expressed relief that the case had finally come to an end, said 1st Sgt. Dave Bursten.

“They’re glad it’s over,” Bursten said after speaking to the slain trooper’s son, Mike Greene.

Timberlake was scheduled to die by chemical injection last Jan. 19, but two days ahead of the execution date, the Indiana Supreme Court blocked the sentence because a similar case from Texas also involving a mentally ill prisoner had come under review by the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court ultimately blocked the Texas execution.

During an appearance before the Indiana Parole Board on his request for clemency ahead of his scheduled execution, Timberlake said he has been hearing voices since 1997 from someone who identified himself as Satan.

Dr. George F. Parker, a psychiatrist who examined Timberlake for the state last year, said he suffered from chronic paranoid schizophrenia and believed he was tortured by a computer-driven machine operated by prison officials.

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