Why Our Mentally Ill Son is on Texas Death Row
by Lois Robison

I am a retired third grade teacher, and my husband Ken is a college instructor. We have eight children (his, mine, and ours), 15 grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. Ours is an average family, except that we have a son on Death Row.

Larry was the kind of boy that every mother dreams of having. He was a good student, played in Little League, was on the swim team, played the drums in high school, and would have made Eagle Scout if he hadn’t become ill. By the time he was in Jr. High, we knew that something was wrong. We tried to get help for him at Family and Children’s Center and at Kansas University Medical Center in Kansas City, KS, where we lived at the time, but he was not given a correct diagnosis until several years later after he was discharged from the Air Force.

Larry was first diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic at Huguley Hospital in Fort Worth when he was 21 years old. Because our insurance no longer covered him, he was discharged. We were told to take him to John Peter Smith County Hospital, where he was kept for 30 days and discharged because he was "not violent" and they "needed the bed." We were told that we should not take him home under any circumstances. When I said "He has no job, no money, no car, and no place to stay—you can’t just put him out on the street," I was told "We do it every day. You’d be surprised how many schizophrenics are on the streets. Most of them cope fairly well."

We took him to Veteran’s Hospital in Waco, where they kept him for 30 days and discharged him. We were told he was not well and would get Worse without treatment, but they couldn’t keep him any longer because he was "not violent" and they "needed the bed." If he became violent, we were told, he could get the long-term treatment that everyone agreed he needed. The VA doctors forgot to have Larry sign a release before he left, so we were unable to get medication for him at the Fort Worth Mental Health/Mental Retardation offices. Because of the Privacy Act, none of the doctors or hospitals informed us that he needed his medication every day in order to cope. No one would tell us what to do to help Larry.

The first and only violence he was accused of was killing five people. We were horrified, and were certain that finally he would be committed to a mental institution, probably for life. We were wrong. He was arrested, held for a year without bail, and not given a hearing to determine his competency to stand trial. In spite of his medical history, he was found sane and sentenced to death. In the 16 years since Larry went to Death Row, he has seen a psychiatrist only twice, both times initiated by our family. He has never received any medication or mental health treatment in jail or in prison.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals declared that Larry did not get a fair trial and ordered a new one. At the trial, we showed his medical records and presented evidence that his natural father, who died of a brain tumor when Larry was two years old, had a brother, an uncle, and a grandfather who were all hospitalized with paranoid schizophrenia. A psychiatrist testified that this illness has a hereditary basis. The judge heard this evidence, but the DA objected so the jury was not allowed to hear it. Larry was again found sane, guilty, and sentenced to die.

The latest medical research shows that major mental illness is a neurobiological brain disorder that can be hereditary and can now usually be controlled with proper medication and supervision. We believe that if Texans knew the facts, they would insist that all mentally ill persons get the best medications available as well as effective case management. Although most persons with mental illness never become violent, the ones who have that potential can only be stopped by preventive treatment. The threat of punishment, even death, means nothing to a psychotic person. If we really want to stop these most horrendous crimes and be safe in our homes and on our streets, prevention is the only answer.

Since Larry went to Death Row, we have met many families who have mentally ill, mentally retarded, or brain damaged relatives in prison. Approximately one-third of the people on Death Row are mentally impaired. There are more of them in prisons and jails in Texas than there are in mental hospitals. Yet programs to treat mental illness would be less expensive than incarceration in prison, and much less expensive than execution, which costs over $2 million for each one. The State of Texas is 49^th in resources for the mentally ill, and yet we are at the very top of the list for number of prisons and executions.

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear Larry’s case, and his execution date has been set for August 17^th, 1999.