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May 4 (UPI) -- An Arizona judge on Wednesday ruled that a man sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a university student in 1978 is competent to be executed next week. Clarence Dixon, 66, is scheduled to be receive a lethal injection May 11.
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He was sentenced to death for the murder of 21-year-old Deana Bowdoin. Dixon was connected to the slaying about two decades later with the enhancement of DNA testing. He had already been serving a life sentence on a 1986 sexual assault conviction.
Pinal County Superior Court Judge Robert Olson ruled that Dixon is mentally competent based on the state's expert. Dixon's attorneys took issue with the fact that the expert only met with and evaluated Dixon over video for 70 minutes.
"Clarence Dixon has suffered from paranoid schizophrenia for decades and has delusions surrounding his upcoming execution," attorney Eric Zuckerman said. "Although the record clearly shows that he is not mentally competent to be executed, the superior court's reliance on the discredited testimony of an unqualified expert who admitted to destroying the only recording of his interview with Mr. Dixon shortly before the hearing and to never asking Mr. Dixon why he believes he is being executed is deeply alarming.
"We will ask the Arizona Supreme Court to apply the correct standard and ensure that Mr. Dixon is not executed while mentally incompetent in violation of the Eighth Amendment."
In a court filing last month, Dixon's lawyers said his execution would violate the 8th Amendment, which protects against cruel and unusual punishment, because he has a "well-documented history" of paranoid schizophrenia.
They said two court-appointed psychiatrists found Dixon to be incompetent as part of an unrelated assault case. Then-Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sandra Day O'Connor found Dixon not guilty by reason of insanity in that case.
They said delusions caused by the mental illness keep him from having a rational understanding of his punishment.
Arizona officials announced plans to set Dixon's execution date in April 2021. At the time, his lawyer, Dale Baich, said his client experienced "chronic neglect" as a child and has had mental illness for decades. He said the murder case rested "almost entirely" on DNA evidence and that other evidence was inconclusive or excluded Dixon.
The Arizona Board of Executive Clemency voted unanimously last week to deny Dixon's petition for clemency. If executed next week, Dixon will be the sixth person put to death in the United States this year and first in Arizona since 2014.
