The appellate attorney fired by condemned double-murderer Keith Eugene Wells filed a petition in U.S. District Court on Monday, asking to stay Wells' scheduled Thursday morning execution.
Rolf Kehne, represented by Hailey attorney Andrew Parnes, said the execution should be blocked because Wells is not competent to make the decision that his appeals should be dropped and his death sentence carried out."I filed as Wells' next friend even though he doesn't want me to," Kehne said. "I owe this to Keith because I was appointed to represent him in state courts and the state courts allowed him to fire me and drop all his appeals without holding a competency hear-ing."
"As a lawyer I would respect his wishes if I thought he was sane," Kehne said. "But he's been mentally ill for a long time. He believes he's possessed by demons, and he thinks the only way he can get rid of this demonic possession is to die."
"We've raised some serious questions," he said.
There was no indication when a decision would be issued on Kehne's petition. He said he was prepared to take the question to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals if it is turned down by the District Court.
Idaho Solicitor General Lynn Thomas has said he expected such a maneuver and has already prepared the state's legal objections to it.
Last week, the courts rejected a petition from another Boise defense attorney, David Nevin, for contact with Wells to explain to him his rights.
Wells, 31, who has spent nearly all of his adult life behind bars, has confessed to the December 1990 beating deaths of John Justad, 23, and Brandi Rains, 20, at a Boise tavern. He has repeatedly said he would rather be executed by lethal injection than spend the rest of his life in prison.
It would be Idaho's first execution since 1957 and only the 10th carried out by the state in this century.