Andre Thomas: Gaps in a 30-Year-Old Mental Health Code

by Brandi Grissom
February 24, 2013
9 Comments

This is Part Four in a six-part series exploring the intersections of the mental health and criminal justice systems in Texas. It examines the case of Andre Thomas, a death row inmate who began exhibiting signs of mental illness as a boy and committed a brutal triple murder in 2004. Blind because he pulled out both of his eyes while behind bars, Thomas awaits a federal court's decision on whether he is sane enough to be executed.

SHERMAN — A worried call from his daughter’s boyfriend sent Paul Boren rushing to her apartment on the morning of March 27 ...

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Comments (9)

February 24 @ 7:35 a.m.

John Johnson

Brandi, you are a gifted writer.
February 24 @ 9:54 a.m.

Luisa Inez Newton via Texas Tribune on Facebook

just "one of the many holes" is right. Texas seems to prefer executing or jailing people for mental illness, not healing them
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February 24 @ 10:09 a.m.

Chris Thornton via Texas Tribune on Facebook

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time. No excuses. If I am drunk or on drugs, and not of sound mind, and I murder somebody, I am still responsible and sent to jail or executed. Why should it be any different for someone that has a "supposed" mental problem and is not of sound mind?

And the day the hospital has the authority to hold someone against their will because the hospital (i.e. the government/big brother) says you have a mental problem, will be the day America becomes a fascist Police State. Much to the delight of liberals, communists, and Marxists everywhere.
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February 24 @ 10:14 a.m.

Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook

Slippery slope.
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February 24 @ 11:18 a.m.

Merryl Redding via Texas Tribune on Facebook

Thank the ACLU...
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February 24 @ 12:43 p.m.

Rebecca Olsen Cook via Texas Tribune on Facebook

If a person comes to a hospital and is determined to be of imminent danger to themself, the hospital staff have to call the police to hopefully get a temporary commitment. So, the staff have to rely on the criminal justice system to keep a person safe. Often, an officer cannot come out before the person decides to leave. This is an inefficient and broken system.
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February 24 @ 1:02 p.m.

Matthew Cowan via Texas Tribune on Facebook

Texas has intentionally made it difficult to take away a persons rights for reasons other than conviction of a crime and rightly so.
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February 25 @ 8:19 a.m.

Molly O'Rielly via Texas Tribune on Facebook

You know, unless your are a woman and want reproductive rights. Then that is fair game
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February 25 @ 1:31 p.m.

ez streit

A sad tale. Pennsylvania's mental health laws allow a doctor or others in addition to police officers., say in an ER, to initiate a 302 which is an involuntary commitment. Thus requires that a hearing be held within a day or so to keep the person involuntarily for a longer period. With the closing of most PA state mental hospitals there is a good chance folks like this will end up on the street until they commit a crime.

See for more info on the process:
http://www.alleghenycounty.us/dhs/commitment.aspx