Judge Hits Death Row Appeals, Finds Bundy Was Fit for Trial

A federal judge lashed out at the death penalty appeals process Thursday in ruling that Ted Bundy had been mentally competent when tried for murder in 1980. He added that Bundy was “probably the most competent serial killer in the country at (that) time.”

U.S. District Judge G. Kendall Sharp called the 40-year-old Bundy “a diabolical genius” and a “most intelligent, articulate, complex individual” who was mentally fit during the murder trial in Orlando.

Suspected in Many Deaths

Bundy is on Death Row for three Florida murders and is suspected of dozens of other killings and disappearances of young women in several Western states.

“Everyone knows that competency is not on trial here. The death penalty is,” Sharp said after a 3 1/2-day hearing on whether Bundy had been able to understand the charges and help efforts to defend himself during his trial for the 1978 kidnaping-murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Diane Leach.

After noting that he had previously ruled on Bundy’s competency, Sharp criticized lengthy appeals lasting up to 10 years and said: “They either should abolish the death penalty itself or change the procedure.”

Sharp’s anger appeared to be directed primarily at the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, which had ordered him to hold the competency hearing in November, 1986, hours before Bundy was to be electrocuted for the Leach murder.

The judge had earlier reviewed trial transcripts and “boxes and boxes” of records, he said, in determining that Bundy was competent.

To Submit Report

Bundy’s lawyers argued before the Atlanta court that they should be allowed to present psychiatrists, former public defenders and other witnesses to testify that the defendant had been mentally ill and incapable of helping in his defense.