Andre Thomas claims he began hearing voices when he was nine years old. In 2004, he says those voices urged him to ritualistically murder his estranged wife, their son and her daughter in Sherman. Afterward, he stabbed himself in the chest.
When he realized he was not going to die he turned himself in. A few days later he plucked out his right eye. In 2008, Thomas was moved to the state's psychiatric prison unit, the Wayne Scott facility after he plucked out his left eye and ate it. He has now been given an April 5th execution date.
His attorney Maurie Levin says he should be ineligible for execution. "He is perhaps the most mentally ill person on Texas' Death Row. I think executing this blind man, guiding him to the gurney would be nothing but a ghastly spectacle." She says executing the mentally ill is unconstitutional.
"He is heavily medicated and nonetheless, that only mildly diminishes the level of his psychosis and his hallucination." She says while mentally ill people have been executed, none were kept at the Wayne Scott unit for this long or received a date while living there.
"Those very facts tell you how extreme this case is and how extraordinary in the worst way it is that they are seeking his execution."
Levin says there is more to this case than Thomas' psychosis. Thomas is African American and was married to a white woman. He was convicted and sentenced to death by an all-white jury. On their jury questionnaires, three jurors said they were opposed to people of different races marrying or having children.
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