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'''Ford v. Wainwright''', 477 U.S. 399 (1986), was the case in which the United States Supreme Court upheld the common law rule that the insane cannot be executed.
Alvin Bernard Ford was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in the state of Florida. While on death row his mental health diminished, and a panel of psychiatrists determined that Ford was not competent to be executed. The governor of Florida ignored the panel and signed Ford's death warrant without offering an explanation.
The U.S. Supreme Court, in an opinion by Justice Thurgood Marshall, reasoned that executing the insane did not serve any penological goals and that Florida’s procedures for determining competency were inadequate. The Court interpreted the Eighth Amendment as barring states from inflicting capital punishment upon insane persons.