Cecil Clayton is missing 1/5 of his brain. He lost it in 1972, when a chunk of wood flew up from a log he was cutting and embedded deep into his skull. To save his life, doctors had to remove 20% of his frontal lobe, the part of the brain that controls impulse, mood, and decision-making.
“Clayton was completely transformed by the accident,” reports Mother Jones. “His IQ dropped to 76, and he developed serious depression, hallucinations, confusion, paranoia, and thoughts of suicide. He relapsed into alcoholism, and his wife divorced him.”
In 1979, a doctor said Clayton was "’just barely making it outside of an institution.’ In 1983, he was officially diagnosed with chronic brain syndrome, which includes psychosis, paranoia, depression, schizophrenia, and decreased mental function. By 1984, another doctor had found him to be "totally disabled," and the government placed him on disability benefits.”
In 1996, following a dispute with his ex-girlfriend, Cecil Clayton shot and killed a Missouri county deputy sheriff. Although his lawyers presented a diminished-capacity defense, Clayton did not undergo a competency hearing. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.
During the past 19 years, dementia has further deteriorated Clayton’s mental health. Just last month, his cellmate said the 74-year-old man is unable to operate the telephone on his own and can’t understand how to order from the prison canteen. According to a statement by Clayton's daughter, "He is brain-damaged, and talking with him is like talking to a child."
Within roughly 48 hours, Cecil Clayton will be dead. He will be executed by the State of Missouri on Tuesday, March 17th. But of that execution, Clayton thinks his faith is being tested. He believes God won’t allow the punishment to occur as God has chosen him for another mission.
And therein lies the legal dilemma.
Missouri law states a person with a mental disease or defect cannot be executed if he or she doesn’t understand “the nature and purpose of the punishment about to be imposed.” But, state law offers no mechanism for the defendant to set up a competency hearing
after trial.
The law does say the director of the Missouri Department of Corrections can initiate a competency hearing, and last year, the corrections director did just that. But that psychiatrist determined “no reasonable cause” existed to find Clayton incompetent. The conclusion is wholly at odds with what other psychiatrists and psychologists have found during their private evaluations.
Clayton’s lawyers are working to get at least a temporary reprieve and preferably a stay on the execution—through the Missouri Supreme Court, a federal court, Gov. Jay Nixon, or, ultimately, the Supreme Court. And the lawyers are confident they will succeed.
But what if they fail? What if the judicial system denies Clayton’s appeals, straps him to a gurney, injects him with lethal drugs, and puts a human being with a childlike mind to death?
Cecil Clayton is guilty of murder. Oddly, he is also an innocent. To kill him without first granting full due process would be illegal and unjust. But to kill him when he can’t understand what’s happening or why goes beyond punishment and becomes cruel and unusual. And America is supposed to be better than that.