Florida to Execute a Paranoid Schizophrenic The Supreme Court has declined to stay the execution of John Errol Ferguson, who is scheduled to die at 6 p.m. Monday evening in Florida. Mr. Ferguson, convicted of murdering 8 people in 1977 and 1978, has sat on the state's death row for 34 years. For four decades, he has been consistently diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, which should categorically exclude him from the possibility of execution under established Supreme Court precedent. But Mr. Ferguson will die anyway. The Florida Supreme Court found he was not sufficiently mentally ill to avoid execution, relying for that finding on a standard the Supreme Court rejected six years ago. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals nevertheless accepted that verdict and now the Supreme Court has closed the final door. Lower courts across the country have reasonably complained that the Supreme Court's test for determining mental illness is vague. In 1986, the Court held that to avoid execution, a prisoner had to be unaware of the fact of his impending punishment as well as the reason for it. In 2007, the Court expanded that standard to require that a prisoner must also have a "rational understanding" of the justification for his execution. This "rational understanding" standard has led to no small amount of confusion and criticism, and different courts have applied it in different ways. Certainly Mr. Ferguson - who saw himself as the "Prince of God" and believed he could "control the sun" - should have been found mentally incompetent, but he was unlucky enough to live in Florida, which appears more interested in ending his life than in abiding by the Constitution. It is fair to ask for clarity in the law, but in the face of uncertainty a state should err on the side of not executing someone. If Mr. Ferguson's execution has any positive effect, it will be to lead the Court to revisit its rulings on mental illness and the death penalty, and give states the clarity and guidance they need when deciding between life and death.