Judge: Arizona prisoner psychologically fit to be executed

PHOENIX (AP) — A judge has ruled that an Arizona prisoner convicted in the 1978 killing of a university student is mentally fit to be put to death next week, keeping on track what would be the first execution in the state in nearly eight years.

In a ruling signed shortly before midnight Tuesday and released on Wednesday, Pinal County Superior Court Judge Robert Olson rejected an argument from defense lawyers that Clarence Dixon’s psychological problems prevent him from rationally understanding why the state wants to end his life.

Dixon was convicted of murder in the killing of 21-year-old Arizona State University student Deana Bowdoin.

Lawyers for Dixon said they will appeal the ruling to the Arizona Supreme Court.

Dixon's lawyers argued Tuesday in a court in Florence, Arizona, that executing him would violate protections against executing people who are mentally unfit.

They said he erroneously believes he will be executed because police at Northern Arizona University wrongfully arrested him in a previous case — a 1985 attack on a 21-year-old student. His attorneys concede he was in fact lawfully arrested at the time by Flagstaff police.

Dixon was sentenced to life sentences in that case for sexual assault and other convictions. DNA samples taken while he was in prison later linked him to Bowdoin’s killing, which at that point had been unsolved.

Prosecutors, who tried unsuccessfully to get the Arizona Supreme Court to call off the mental competency hearing, said there was nothing about Dixon’s beliefs that prevented him from understanding the reason for the execution and pointed to court filings that Dixon himself made over the years.

Defense lawyers said Dixon has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia on multiple occasions, has regularly experienced...