Percy Levar Walton
At 9 p.m. on Tuesday evening, the Commonwealth of Virginia will inject a lethal substance into Percy Walton with the intention of ending his life. Percy Walton was 18 years and one month old at the time of his crime. He was sentenced to death in 1997 for the murders of an elderly white couple, Elizabeth Hendrick, aged 81, and Jesse Hendrick, aged 80, and a 33-year-old black man, Archie Moore, in Danville in November 1996.
Walton suffers from schizophrenia and his illness has gone untreated for over a decade. Over the past several years, prison personnel, including a psychiatrist, have described him as being floridly psychotic and appearing severely mentally retarded. Two independent psychiatrists state that Walton has chronic schizophrenia and does not understand that he has a death sentence. However, a June 16, 2003 hearing ruled that Walton had a reported IQ as high as 90 on previous tests, and his retardation had not been apparent before the age of 18, missing another gauge for mental retardation. Prison guards refer to Walton as “Horse”, short for “Crazy Horse,” and stay at arms length to avoid his stench (a classic symptom of schizophrenia).

Since Mr. Walton was first sentenced to death the US Supreme Court has ruled in Atkins v Virginia the execution of the mentally retarded to be prohibited as “cruel and unusual punishment.” Since that 2002 ruling approximately 50 death row inmates who suffer from mental retardation have been removed from death rows across the United States and had their sentences remanded to life in prison without parole. Five of the most recent grants of clemency to death row inmates nationally have been based on the inmate’s extreme mental illness. These commutations reflect a greater understanding of the ravages of severe schizophrenia, its biological cause, and the need for compassion and treatment rather than condemnation for sufferers.
Signs will be provided