Baird seeks clemency; lawyer says he is insane

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- A Montgomery County man scheduled to be executed by the state later this month for killing his parents and his pregnant wife will seek clemency on the grounds he is mentally ill, his lawyer said Wednesday.\n"He was mentally ill at the time of the offense and he is mentally ill now," said Sarah Nagy, an attorney for Arthur P. Baird II.\nBaird was convicted of killing his wife, Nadine, who was seven months pregnant, and his parents, Arthur and Kathryn Baird, in 1985. Nadine Baird was killed in the home she shared with her husband in Darlington, about 20 miles south of Lafayette. His parents were killed the next morning.\nIn 1987, Baird was sentenced to 60 years in prison for murdering his wife and eight years in prison for feticide. He was sentenced to death for killing his parents.\nHe confessed to the killings, telling police he had gone berserk. He believed the federal government was going to pay him $1 million for advice on how to solve the national debt, and he was going to use the money to buy a farm, court records show. Police said they found no motive for the murders.\nNagy contends Baird was delusional.\n"He believed a big burly man was moving his arms, causing him to do the things that he did," she said. "He now continues to believe that a big burly man is moving his arms, and has other various delusions that have developed and evolved since his incarceration."\nStaci Schneider, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office, said the office would not comment on Baird's clemency until his hearing.\nThe Indiana Parole Board is scheduled to meet Aug. 19 at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City to hear from Baird, said Earl Coleman, the assistant for the parole board. A public hearing is scheduled Aug. 24 in Indianapolis. The board is expected to vote later that day.\nThe board has recommended clemency in a capital case just once since the death penalty was reinstated in Indiana in 1977. Last year, then-Gov. Joe Kernan commuted the death sentence for Darnell Williams to life in prison without the possibility of parole after the Parole Board voted unanimously to recommend clemency, saying too many unresolved questions remained.\nNagy is confident Baird has a strong case.\n"If there's a case to be made for mercy, this is it, because he was less culpable than a juvenile or someone who is mentally retarded because of his mental illness," Nagy said.\nThe state Supreme Court on July 19 ruled against an earlier claim that Baird shouldn't have been sentenced to death because he was mentally ill at the time.\nNagy said she also has filed a motion with the state Supreme Court to halt the execution because Baird is not mentally competent to be executed.\n"That's different than arguing that he wasn't competent at the time," she said.\nIn the July 19 ruling, state Supreme Court Justice Robert D. Rucker ruled with the majority, but he wrote separately because he wanted to emphasize that Baird had made no claim based on his present mental state.\n"I continue to believe that a sentence of death is inappropriate for a person suffering a severe mental illness," Rucker wrote.\nIf the execution takes place, Baird would be the fifth person put to death by Indiana this year -- the most since eight men were executed by the state in 1938.