--- description: Scott Panetti was convicted of killing his in-laws more than two decades ago title: Execution of ‘Delusional’ Death Row Inmate Scott Panetti Halted image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5ec6b900b50ff307/69876c61cd68486b0409863b/scott-panetti1.jpg?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [justice](/tag/justice/) ## justice Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Execution of 'Delusional' Death Row Inmate Scott Panetti Halted by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 3, 2014 6:00 PM CUT  Inmate Scott Panetti is seen in an undated picture release by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Huntsville, Texas. Inmate Scott Panetti is seen in an undated picture release by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Huntsville, Texas.Reuters by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 3, 2014 6:00 PM CUT A federal appeals court has halted the Wednesday execution of a Texas killer whose lawyers say is too mentally ill to be put to death. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the stay of execution just hours before Scott Panetti was due to be put to death for murdering his in-laws in 1992\. The court said it was granting a temporary reprieve “to allow us to fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issue in this matter.” “We are really pleased that cooler heads have prevailed,” defense lawyer Kathryn Kase said after the decision.. [Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC News](http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/lethal-injection/execution-delusional-death-row-inmate-scott-panetti-halted-n260816 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3616446/execution-delusional-death-row-inmate-scott-panetti-halted/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3616446/execution-delusional-death-row-inmate-scott-panetti-halted/"},"headline":"Execution of 'Delusional' Death Row Inmate Scott Panetti Halted","datePublished":"2014-12-03T18:00:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:32:46.439Z","description":"Scott Panetti was convicted of killing his in-laws more than two decades ago","url":"https://time.com/3616446/execution-delusional-death-row-inmate-scott-panetti-halted/","keywords":["justice"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5ec6b900b50ff307/69876c61cd68486b0409863b/scott-panetti1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5ec6b900b50ff307/69876c61cd68486b0409863b/scott-panetti1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Inmate Scott Panetti is seen in an undated picture release by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Huntsville, Texas.","caption":"Inmate Scott Panetti is seen in an undated picture release by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Huntsville, Texas.","creditText":"Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/justice/","name":"justice"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3616446/execution-delusional-death-row-inmate-scott-panetti-halted/","name":"Execution of 'Delusional' Death Row Inmate Scott Panetti Halted"}}]}] ```