US: Virginia governor Tim Kaine has delayed the execution of a triple killer and ordered an inquiry to determine if the condemned man is mentally unfit.
Percy Levar Walton pleaded guilty in 1997 to killing Jessie and Elizabeth Kendrick, an elderly couple, and his neighbour Archie Moore. He was due to be executed on Wednesday but Mr Kaine said he was postponing the execution for six months. "Due to the history of judicial concern about his mental status, the claims in Walton's clemency petition are entitled to serious consideration. It would be imprudent to either proceed with the execution or grant clemency without further review," he said.
Lawyers and psychiatrists have long debated whether Walton's mental condition prevented him from understanding that he had been sentenced to death and a psychiatrist testified in 2003 that Walton believed he would ride a motorcycle to Burger King after he was put to death. He is also reported to have said that his death will bring his victims and his own grandfather back to life.
Walton's lawyers say he began showing signs of mental instability when he was about 16, two years before the murders.
In 2003, he scored 66 in an IQ test, a level psychiatrists usually consider consistent with not being mentally developed.
Jennifer Givens, one of Walton's lawyers, said she was confident that an inquiry would confirm that the condemned man's mental difficulties are severe enough to prevent his execution.
"I was hoping that the governor would do the right thing, and he has. He's recognised the seriousness of executing someone with an IQ of 66 and who is severely mentally ill. I have complete confidence that once he gets the findings he will determine that a commutation is appropriate."
Mr Kaine, a Democrat, was elected governor last year after a campaign during which he said that his Catholic faith made him oppose the death penalty but promised to enforce Virginia's law. Virginia executes more people than any other US state apart from Texas.
He refused to commute a death sentence in April but critics claimed that his decision to delay Walton's execution reflected his reluctance to implement the death penalty.
In April, lawyers for a Florida death row inmate argued before the Supreme Court that the three-drug combination used in executions would cause unnecessary pain, violating the US constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.