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Alan L. Matheney
Indiana
Mental Illness
Schizophreniform Disorder and Paranoid Personality Disorder with Psychotic Delusions.
Executed on 28 September, 2005.
Summary
Alan Matheney is a 54 year old white male currently awaiting execution in Indiana for the 1989 murder of his ex-wife. On 11 April, 1990, a jury found Mr. Matheney guilty of burglary and the murder of his ex-wife, Lisa Bianco. On 20 April, 1990, the same jury recommended a sentence of death and on 11 May, 1990, Judge Letsinger of the Lake County Superior Court followed the jury’s recommendation and entered a written order imposing the death sentence. There is strong evidence to suggest that Mr. Matheney suffers from extreme mental and emotional disturbance and has been diagnosed with schizophreniform disorder and a severe paranoid personality disorder with psychotic delusions.
Facts of the Crime and mental Illness Background
Mr. Alan Matheney was serving a sentence imposed in St. Joseph County on November 23, 1987, for the 1985 unlawful confinement of his children and the 1987 battery of his ex-wife Lisa Bianco. In September 1985, while Matheney was in jail awaiting a plea acceptance, Dr Arens evaluated his mental state. Dr Arens diagnosed Mr. Matheney as suffering from schizopheroform disorder, observing that Matheney was experiencing social withdrawal, cognitive confusion, anxiety and paranoia. It was agreed that the judgment on the confinement would be deferred while Matheney received psychiatric treatment from Dr. Arens. Matheney and Arens met twelve times between 1985 and 1987. In January 1987, Matheney abused his ex-wife Lisa Bianco. Matheney was checked into the psychiatric ward at South Bend Memorial Hospital, Indiana. Shortly afterwards, Matheney was arrested and charged with the battery of his ex-wife. Mr Matheney entered pleas to both the 1985 confinement and the 1987 battery charges. He was convicted and sent to Pendleton Prison where he received no further psychiatric care.
On March 4, 1989, Matheney was issued with an eight hour pass release from the Correctional Industrial Complex at Pendleton, Indiana. During his incarceration for the crime of battery and confinement, Mr. Matheney was suffering under the delusion that his ex-wife and the prosecutor for St. Joseph County, Michael Barnes, were having an affair. He further believed that Barnes and Bianco had colluded to have him jailed indefinitely.
Alan Matheney used the opportunity provided by the eight hour pass to confront his wife about her part in the delusional conspiracy. He stopped at a friend’s house, removed an unloaded shotgun and drove to his ex-wife’s house. When he arrived, she ran from the house; he followed. Upon catching Ms. Bianco, he hit her in the head with the shotgun killing her. He later surrendered himself to the authorities. At the police station, Matheney asserted that he was at the centre of a conspiracy involving the CIA and organized crime. Additional elements of the conspiracy theory included political corruption, Lisa Bianco’s involvement in the drug trade, and that Lisa Bianco was in possession of tapes that would free him from prison and these tapes he had gone to her house to retrieve.
Two public defenders were appointed to the case, neither had any capital trial experience. The attorneys requested a psychiatric competency examination. The judge granted this request and appointed Drs. Myron Berkson and George Batacan to perform the examinations. Unfortunately, on the same day, March 27, 1989, the judge issued an “Order for Examination Concerning Sanity,” this order excluded any reference to the requested competency determination. In the written instructions to the two doctors the judge failed to direct on the issue of competency. Therefore, the issue of competency to stand trial was not addressed at the original trial.
Also at this time, Mr. Matheney claimed that the relationship between his wife and the St. Joseph County Prosecutor prevented him from securing quality counsel, that his family’s phone was tapped, and that the police had broken into his relatives’ homes to steal evidence. The judge granted the motion and the case was moved to Lake County Superior Court on January 25, 1990.
At his capital trial, Dr. Helen Morrison was a witness for the defence. She found Matheney was suffering from a severe paranoid personality disorder with psychotic delusions. Dr. Morrison characterized the disorder as “a fixed…false belief, a belief which defies reality, but one upon which the person bases his behavior, his subsequent actions, and his subsequent involvement”. Dr. Morrison found that Matheney did appreciate the wrongfulness of his actions, but he could not conform his conduct to the requirements of the law, because his actions at the time of the murder were defined by the psychotic delusions he experienced. Dr Morrison further testified that she believed that the 1985 evaluations and diagnosis were the first documented symptoms of Matheney’s delusional disorder.
Dr. Morrison had a number of face-to-face interviews with Matheney and based upon this information, coupled with the reports from previous psychological examinations administered by other doctors, Morrison diagnosed Matheney as suffering from severe paranoid personality disorder with psychotic delusions that impaired his perception of reality completely.
As stated earlier, the issue of competency to stand trial was not addressed at original trial. It was, however, addressed in 1994 by the Indiana trial court in the post-conviction review of Matheney's conviction. A lengthy evidentiary hearing was conducted. At this time Dr. Morrison’s diagnosis of paranoid delusional disorder led her to affirm unequivocally that in her professional opinion, Matheney was incompetent to stand trial in 1990.
[Matheney] was not competent. He was not able to rationally understand what he needed to do in order to provide a defense. He didn’t trust his attorney because he was part of the court system. He also didn’t have a rational understanding of what this was about. To him, this was about the fact that he had been persecuted. . . . The fact that appellant lacked a rational understanding of the proceedings rendered the fact that he was oriented as to time and place, and able to identify actors within the judicial process, essentially meaningless.
Dr. Morrison re-confirmed in a 2002 videotaped deposition that Matheney was not competent to stand trial because he was "not able to rationally understand what he needed to do to provide a defense" and he did not "trust his attorney because [Matheney believed the attorney] was part of the court system" and therefore part of the conspiracy against him.
Present Situation
The psychiatric evidence illustrates Mr. Matheney’s inability to comprehend the reality of his situation and his inability to make rational choices accordingly. The mental illness is treatable, which greatly reduces the risk of future violence. Despite this, all his appeals to date have failed. Mr. Matheney has exhausted all his state and federal appeals. He has an execution date of 28 September, 2005.
Letters Asking for Clemency
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