Defense says Wilkes-Barre mass killer is psychotic - Associated Press

August 14, 2008

GRATERFORD, Pa. (AP) - Mass murderer George Banks covered his mouth with a wad of napkins and stared off into space Thursday as his attorneys asked a judge to spare his life, saying the former prison guard can't be executed for killing 13 people because he is too mentally ill.

Banks, 66, who was sentenced to death for a 1982 shooting rampage in northeastern Pennsylvania that claimed the lives of five of his own children, sat silently and paid little attention as a hearing got under way to determine whether he is mentally competent to face execution.

Defense experts testified that Banks is psychotic and unable to comprehend his death sentence or participate in his defense.

They said Banks believes his sentence has been vacated by God or Jesus, that he is no longer under the threat of death, and that he is being held in prison as part of a conspiracy to get him to renounce his religious beliefs.

Banks "continues to be extraordinarily paranoid about all sorts of things," said Dr. John O'Brien, a defense psychiatrist who has examined Banks twice. "He's not capable of rational thought, period."

Prosecutors concede Banks is mentally ill but maintain the execution should go forward.

Thursday's hearing was held at the state prison in Graterford before Luzerne County Judge Michael Conahan, who ruled once before that Banks couldn't be put to death. The state Supreme Court ordered a fresh hearing to determine Banks' mental state after finding that Conahan improperly barred a psychiatrist from testifying.

The hearing is expected to last through Monday.

On Thursday, O'Brien and another defense witness, psychologist Jethro Toomer, said there has been no change in Banks' condition since the first hearing in early 2006, and that he stands little chance of getting better.

Banks' illness continued to manifest itself on Thursday, O'Brien said, testifying that he overheard Banks talking to one of his attorneys about the "intentional manipulation of cartoon images" and "reading meaning into the direction of lines on the page."

Banks has also claimed that prison staff are poisoning his food and that other inmates spy on him and meddle in his financial affairs, defense experts said.

Toomer said that when he tried to examine Banks earlier this year, Banks would not answer Toomer's questions directly. Instead, Banks turned his back, rambled about the "United States of Islam" and claimed he was surrounded by devils. "I was unable to engage in logical, coherent conversation," Toomer testified.

Banks scrawls Bible passages and other writings on pieces of toilet paper and tapes them to the ceiling of his cell, keeps his Bible tightly bound in several layers of wrapping material, and rambles endlessly, jumping from one topic to the next, Toomer and O'Brien said.

Defense attorneys asked for Banks to be excused from attending the hearing, but the judge declined.

On Sept. 25, 1982, Banks picked up his AR-15 semiautomatic rifle shortly before 2 a.m. and began shooting. At two houses in Wilkes-Barre and its suburbs, he killed a total of seven children; his three live-in girlfriends; an ex-girlfriend; her mother; and a bystander in the street.

Banks, who is biracial, has maintained that he shot his children to spare them the racial prejudice he endured in Wilkes-Barre, a city 100 miles north of Philadelphia. Prosecutors noted his history of abusing women and said he had been involved in a nasty custody battle with one of the victims.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court halted Banks' execution in December 2004 and ordered a hearing to determine Banks' mental competency.