A Texas man who shot and killed 23 people at an El Paso Walmart will not face the federal death penalty, prosecutors announced on Tuesday.
Patrick Crusius, now 24, opened fire at the supermarket in August 2019, having posted a slew of racist material online.
He will go on trial on 90 hate crime charges in January 2024, but will not be federally executed, after Joe Biden campaigned to end the federal death penalty and the attorney general instigated a moratorium in July 2021.
Crusius could, however, still be executed by the state of Texas.
His lawyers argued that their client has diagnosed mental disabilities that should be a ‘red flag’ for prosecutors.
They said Crusius ‘has been diagnosed with severe, lifelong neurological and mental disabilities’ and was treated with antipsychotic medication following his arrest moments after the massacre in El Paso.
Jail mental health staff found the then-21-year-old to be in a ‘psychotic state.’
Patrick Crusius ‘has been diagnosed with severe, lifelong neurological and mental disabilities’, his attorneys wrote in a court filing
Crusius’ mental health conditions, which have not been previously reported, were revealed in a request by his lawyers for more time to investigate these ‘mitigating themes’ because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Crusius’ mental health conditions, which have not been previously reported, were revealed in a request by his lawyers for more time to investigate
‘Counsel must gather all of the information necessary to inform experts who will then be in a position to interview Mr. Crusius at the jail and render opinions regarding his mental status at the time of the shooting,’ the motion said, CBS DFW reports. ‘As of now, no experts can accomplish these things, as to date, they have either been under stay-at-home orders from the Government or their employers, or they are in a high-risk category for COVID and cannot travel to meet Mr. Crusius.’
The court record also states Crusius was in special education for much of his schooling, but does not elaborate on his mental health. A lawyer for his family, Christopher Ayres, declined to comment.
Crusius was arrested soon after the August 3 shooting. Police later said he confessed to driving to border city from his home near Dallas to target Mexicans. Soon before the attack, he posted a racist screed online that railed against Hispanics coming to the U.S., according to prosecutors.
Crusius pleaded not guilty in a state case where prosecutors are seeking the death penalty but has not entered a plea to the scores of hate crime and gun charges he faces in federal court. A trial date has not been set in either case.
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The August 3, El Paso shooting left dozens wounded and ultimately killed 23 people
Conviction on the federal charges could also come with a death sentence, and Crusius´ lawyers said in their Saturday court filing that prosecutors said they’ll proceed with a decision about what sentence to seek by July 30.
David Lane, a Colorado-based defense attorney, wrote that this schedule would violate Crusius’ constitutional rights because the virus has stalled their investigation of issues the government must consider.
Crusius pleaded not guilty in a state case where prosecutors are seeking the death penalty but has not entered a plea to the scores of hate crime and gun charges he faces in federal court
Lane, who is over 65, said safety concerns have blocked the defense team from doing in-person interviews since mid-March, including with Crusius, who is jailed without bond. He asked the judge to schedule a discussion of these issues for October.
Federal prosecutors are opposing the request and have said the Attorney General will decide whether to seek the death penalty. They not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lane declined to comment, saying ‘the motion speaks for itself.’
About four dozen people were struck by gunfire, and 20 were killed outright during the August 3 shooting. Two more victims died of their wounds two days later. Another victim died in late April.
Police said they arrested Crusius near the shooting after he surrendered to officers, telling them he was targeting ‘Mexicans.’ They also attributed to him a four-page racist screed that decried a Hispanic ‘invasion’ of Texas and the U.S., and called for ethnic and racial segregation.
Police said they arrested Crusius near the shooting after he surrendered to officers, telling them he was targeting ‘Mexicans.’ FBI agents in the aftermath of the shooting on August 3
The shooting was the largest terrorist attack targeting Hispanics in modern history, and spread fear throughout the Latino community.
In the wake of the attack El Paso police said the Walmart had previously hired armed off-duty police officers to guard larger stores, but removed them at some point.
The store where the shooting took place reopened in November.
The assault in the Texas border city was followed just 13 hours later by a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, where a gunman killed nine people and wounded 27 others before he was shot dead by police.
The back-to-back massacres sparked a political outcry, with El Paso native and then-Democratic Party presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke demanding the mandatory confiscation of the assault-style rifles often used in mass shootings.
