DALLAS (WBAP/KLIF News) – The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has found a former Dallas accountant convicted of killing his nine and six-year-old daughters mentally competent to be executed.
John Battaglia shot his daughters, Faith and Liberty, while they were on speaker phone with their mother, Mary Jean Pearl, in May of 2001. Pearl testified that after the shooting Battaglia yelled “Merry F—–G Christmas.”
He and his wife were divorced at the time after what Pearl described as an abusive nine-year marriage.
A jury convicted him in 2002 and sentenced him to death.
In 2005, the conviction and death sentence was upheld by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. At that time, Battaglia had exhausted his state and federal appeals and was set to be executed in March of 2016.
A judge allowed the execution to be stayed to allow Battaglia to argue his claim that he was incompetent to be executed.
In November 2016, Judge Robert Burns reviewed his incompetency claim where three out of four psychologists testified that he was not fit to be executed.
Despite the testimony, Burns ruled that Battaglia was in fact “mentally competent to be executed”.
Battaglia’s attorney appealed Burns’ ruling, which was ultimately upheld by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
A new execution date will be set by the trial court.
Copyright 2017. WBAP/KLIF News. All Rights Reserved.
