Inmate Deceased 12-26-02

Maturana, age 32, and his co-defendant Stephen Ballard, were angry with Glenn Estes, a 16-year-old boy who lived with his mother, because he had stolen a car manifold from them.

On the night of July 5, 1990, Maturana and Ballard went to Estes' home and lured him away with the promise that they would "party" in the desert.

They then drove him to an extremely remote location, where Appellant shot Estes 12 times, and Ballard cut his throat. They tossed his body in a water tank, where it was discovered the next morning by a ranch hand. Ballard, who was age 20, was given a life sentence.

PROCEEDINGS

    Presiding Judge: Michael D. Alfred
    Prosecutor: Kenneth Peasley
    Start of Trial: February 20, 1992
    Verdict:  February 26, 1992
    Sentencing: April 13, 1992

Aggravating Circumstances:

    Prior crime of violence  
    Especially cruel, heinous or depraved

Mitigating Circumstances:

    None

PUBLISHED OPINIONS

    State v. Maturana, 180 Ariz. 126, 882 P.2d 933 (1994).

  

French national in Arizona

The case of French national Claude Maturana has provoked controversy in the legal and ethical debate over the medication of prisoners considered mentally incompetent to be executed.

Claude Maturana was convicted of murdering Glenn Estes in July 1990 over a series of minor disputes. Estes, who was in his late teens, was allegedly tricked into accompanying Maturana and co-defendant Stephen Ballard to a remote spot in the desert where he was shot repeatedly and then partially decapitated. Ballard received a sentence of life imprisonment. Maturana was sentenced to death in April 1992, the aggravating circumstances being a prior crime of violence and the especially heinous nature of the murder.

In 1994, Maturana's mental heath began to deteriorate noticeably and by 1997 communication with him became all but impossible. He became delusional, reciting strings of numbers in what he considers to be codes. In January 1999, a Superior Court judge concurred with the findings of two court-appointed doctors and declared Maturana mentally incompetent. As prescribed by state law, Maturana was transferred from death row to a special unit on the grounds of the Arizona State Hospital for ''competency restoration treatment …until the prisoner becomes competent to be executed''.

The chief medical officer of the state hospital entrusted with supervising Claude Maturana's treatment has refused on the grounds of medical ethics to administer therapy, other than medication required to keep Maturana in a comfortable condition. Diagnosing Maturana as suffering from chronic paranoid schizophrenia, the same doctor has suggested in a report to the court that the death sentence be commuted to life imprisonment in this case. To date, the hospital administration has been unable to find an Arizona Department of Health professional willing to administer treatment directed at rendering Maturana competent for execution.

The Attorney General's office has contested the claim of mental incompetence and has argued that, under state law, the hospital is required to provide a doctor willing to restore Maturana to a degree of mental competence sufficient to allow his execution. Arizona heath officials recently engaged a doctor from the state of Georgia who after evaluation has concluded that Maturana is seriously ill but competent to be executed. He is also said to have expressed his willingness to administer any further competency restoration treatment. The doctor is reported to be the medical director of the company that provides mental health care to inmates in Georgia's prisons.

Due to Maturana's state of mental health and privacy laws regarding immigration records, little is known about his background. He is believed to have been born in France in July 1957, but details of his arrival in the United States are scant. Records suggest that his mother may have lived in Florida but is now deceased and no family members have come forward. Although French authorities are reported to have recognised Maturana as a French national, the possibility exists that he later obtained US citizenship through naturalisation.

Amnesty International has been informed of an alleged episode of the activation of a remote control electro-shock stun belt Maturana was made to wear during his transportation to a court hearing in June 1999. Maturana is reported to have suffered a seizure, during which he badly bit his tongue.

The state's case against Maturana for the murder of Glen Estes is currently stayed pending resolution of the issue of mental competence.

So two years ago, they sent out letters to all 1,400 of Arizona's psychiatrists and advertised in a local newspaper for a doctor to treat Maturana.

No one came forward. The ethical concerns over whether the state should treat someone in order to put him to death were too strong.

Only months later, after the search had been expanded nationwide, did a doctor from Georgia agree to examine Maturana.

The doctor's declaration that Maturana was competent - defined by state law as having an awareness of his death sentence and why it was imposed - gave Arizona the opening it needed to maintain his status on death row.

That was in 1999. And that is pretty much where the case has been since then, with Maturana still held on the grounds of the state mental hospital.

On May 23, however, the case will move forward when his attorney plans to argue before the state Supreme Court that the more rigorous standards for mental competency during a trial should apply to her client. Those standards require that the defendant be able to assist in his own defense.

The case has stirred a debate over the legal and ethical propriety of treating an inmate in order to make him suitable for execution.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976, no death row inmate in the United States has been found incompetent and then treated by government doctors in an attempt to restore his competency and allow his execution, said Kent Cattani, who oversees death penalty appeals for the Arizona Attorney General's office.

"It contravenes international standards to execute someone with any form of mental impairment,'' said Ajamu Baraka, who coordinates Amnesty International's anti-death penalty efforts. "The idea that a state would go to such length to make someone well and transform them for the sole purpose of then imposing punishment strikes us as absurd and immoral.''

Cattani argues that somebody who can be competent with more medication should not be spared: "I don't think the penalty should be reduced on what could be short-term incompetence.''

Maturana, a 44-year-old French citizen, is years away from execution because his appeals have not run their course.

His lawyer Carla Ryan said Maturana spends his days talking about visits from his mother, who died 30 years ago, and has hallucinations that he is already dead.

"He doesn't have a clue where reality is,'' said Ryan, who refused a request to interview Maturana. "It doesn't make sense to me why they should spend so much time and money to kill him.''

Maturana was sentenced to death in 1992 for the murder of 16-year-old Glen Estes near Tucson. Maturana suspected Estes of stealing an auto part from him. He shot Estes and tried to decapitate him with a machete in the desert.

In January 1999, Maturana was declared incompetent by two doctors after Ryan requested a psychiatric evaluation. He was sent to a prison unit on the grounds of the Arizona State Hospital in Phoenix.

Doctors there kept him on the same drug he has been on for years to control his condition but refused to try to restore his competence with more aggressive medication because it conflicted with the American Medical Association code of ethics. The organization deems it unethical to treat someone to restore competence in such a case because it is the equivalent of participating in an execution.

"It's very clear it's an ethical violation,'' said Dr. Jack Potts, the chief forensic psychiatrist in Maricopa County, who turned down a request to treat Maturana. "Our role is do no harm. It wasn't a hard call.''

It was only through extensive networking that the hospital found Dr. Nelson Bennett of Atlanta. Bennett's surprise diagnosis that Maturana wa s competent - therefore not needing more aggressive treatment - shocked Dr. Jerry Dennis, who had been medicating him. Bennett did not return several calls for comment.

"A person who says he's dead already, how can he have an adequate understanding of being killed?'' Dennis said.

Gov. Jane Hull signed a bill last month that bans the execution of mentally retarded criminals, and the U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to debate the same issue in a push death penalty foes hope will eventually spare the mentally impaired from capital punishment.