ORLANDO, Fla., March 3 (UPI) -- The Florida attorney for convicted murderer Ray Jeffries says her client is not competent to decide his own fate.
Jeffries, sentenced to death for killing his brother's landlady during a robbery six years ago, wants to drop his appeals so he can die by lethal injection, the Orlando Sentinel reported Thursday.
But his attorney, Daphney Gaylord, is asking Orange County Circuit Judge Bob Wattles to rule Jeffries is mentally ill and not able to make rational decisions.
Jeffries objected to Gaylord's attempts to keep him alive during a three-hour hearing in Orlando Wednesday.
"This is not a hearing. This is ludicrous, the questions she is asking," Jeffries said as Gaylord interviewed a government witness.
Two doctors testified Jeffries was competent to make his own decision.
The hearing was recessed until later this month, when Gaylord said she would present a psychiatrist who would testify Jeffries is not competent.
