Panetti has been on Death Row in Texas since 1995 and has been diagnosed as schizophrenic.

Panetti's lawyers and attorneys for the state said he was mentally disturbed. The question was whether he was sufficiently mentally ill that it would violate the 8th Amendment, which bars cruel and unusual punishment, to execute him.

Panetti was hospitalized for mental illness 14 times in the decade before using a shotgun to kill his former in-laws in the Texas hill-country town of Fredericksburg, as his estranged wife Sonja and her son watched.

Panetti was ruled mentally competent to stand trial, to represent himself and to be executed. Before Thursday's decision, four courts, including the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, rejected pleas by Panetti's lawyers to spare his life.

The case presented a particularly thorny question, because evidence was introduced that Panetti was aware that he had killed Amanda and Joe Alvarado. But expert testimony was presented that Panetti, known as "the Preacher" on Death Row, believed he was going to be executed because Texas was conspiring with the devil to block him from preaching the Gospel to fellow inmates -- not because of the Alvarado murders.

Kennedy found that Panetti's execution would be inconsistent with a 1986 Supreme Court decision that a person should not be put to death if he could not perceive "the connection between his crime and his punishment."

He was joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.

Dissenting was Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito Jr.

The Supreme Court sent the case back to a federal judge in Austin, Texas, to reassess Panetti's mental health in light of the decision issued Thursday. Ted Cruz, the Texas solicitor general, said he would continue to press for Panetti's execution.

The high court's decision was hailed by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, which submitted a friend-of-the-court brief, as did the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association.

"For once, law has caught up with medical science," said Ronald Honberg, NAMI's director of policy and legal affairs.

"The circumstances of this case are tragic. ... However, execution of someone who is profoundly ill would only compound the original tragedy and represent a profound injustice for us all," Honberg said.

A teenager has pleaded guilty to a murder that sent a mob of the victim's relatives on a search for the killer, ending in the fatal beating of another man they thought was involved.

Leonard Staton, 19, pleaded guilty Thursday to killing Patrick McClendon, 20. Staton faces a minimum of 24 years in prison for second-degree murder, kidnapping, robbery and possession of a stolen firearm.

Staton called police last summer to confess to killing McClendon, his one-time friend, over 2 ounces of marijuana.

Hours before that call, a search party of McClendon's family and friends came across the victim's car, hidden among pine trees on property that belonged to the family of Tony Blakeney, 40.

The search party then turned on Blakeney, who lived at the house and was part of the search party, authorities said. Sheriff's deputies found Blakeney lying on the ground, and he died at a hospital.

Eleven men - most of them relatives of McClendon's, and all under 30 - face murder charges in Blakeney's death.

Investigators have said Blakeney had no part in McClendon's killing.

Schultz-Reineke, a German citizen living in Manhattan, faces up to 85 years in prison on the charges. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 28.

"It was a tragic day for him," said Roland Riopelle, Schultz-Reineke's lawyer. "We look forward to completing the proceedings. He looks forward, at some point, to going home to Germany."

Prosecutors alleged that Schultz-Reineke and others engaged in a scheme to defraud clients of Results Securities and Signature Investments. Many of the investors were German, prosecutors said.

Schultz-Reineke and others would secretly pay significantly more than publicized in its fee schedule to individuals employed by the companies to induce clients to invest, the government said.

Prosecutors said Schultz-Reineke and others also caused to be created customer account statements and trade confirmations that falsely represented purchases and sales of securities, as well as profits and losses incurred on those trades.

Schultz-Reineke and others directed a substantial portion of the investors' money be used for purposes other than trading securities, including for the firms' operating expenses and for their personal use.

Griles, the highest ranking official convicted in the scandal, pleaded guilty in March to charges of lying about his relationship with Abramoff.

"This has been the most difficult time in my life," Griles said before the verdict was announced Tuesday. "My guilty plea has brought me great shame and embarrassment. I have lost my business, my income and, most importantly, my reputation."

However, Huvelle pushed aside Griles' claims of remorse.

"You held a position of trust as number two in the Department of Interior, and I will hold you to a higher standard," Huvelle told Griles. "I find that, even now, you continue to minimize and try to excuse your conduct and the nature of your misstatements."

The two will be sentenced in November, along with four other defendants who pleaded guilty in Milwaukee in April.

Rockwell Automation produces, among other products, specialized factory management software. The majority of the software applications sold by these defendants on eBay had retail prices ranging from about $900 to $11,300.

From September 2003 to September 2004, Koster offered counterfeit software in 105 or more online auctions, receiving a profit of more than $23,000, the DOJ said. The retail value of the software was more than $5 million.

From December 2003 to August 2004, Yamamoto initiated at least 92 auctions, for a profit of $6,000, the DOJ said. The retail value of the software was about $543,000.

Including Monday's pleas, the DOJ has gotten nine convictions involving eBay auctions of counterfeit Rockwell Automation software. In addition to six pleas in Wisconsin, there have been two convictions in the Eastern District of Michigan and another in the Southern District of Indiana. The combined retail value of the counterfeit software in all nine prosecutions is approximately $30 million, the DOJ said.

Jose Magallan, a Deputy assigned to the United States Marshal's  McAllen office, has pleaded guilty to two counts of exceeding his authorized access to information on a U. S. Government computer and accepting money for the information, United States Attorney Don DeGabrielle and Special Agent in Charge of the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General Dallas Field Office announced today. 

At a hearing before United States District Judge Vanessa Gilmore held today,   Jose Magallan, 52, of  McAllen, TX, admitted that on two separate occasions, in November 2006 and in January 2007, he accepted money from a private citizen to conduct an unauthorized search of the U. S. Marshals Service's computer system to obtain and deliver information.   Magallan admitted to receiving $500 for information he obtained in the first unauthorized access to information search and $450 for the second such search.  

Judge Gilmore, who accepted the guilty pleas and convicted Magallan of two counts alleged in the indictment, has set sentencing for October 9, 2007.  Magallan faces up to five years imprisonment and up to a $250,000 for each count of conviction.

Magallan, who has been free on bond since his arrest in April 2007 following return of the two count indictment,  has been permitted by the court to remain on bond pending his sentencing.

The investigation leading to the indictment of Magallan was conducted by Special Agents of the Dallas Field Office of the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U. S. Attorney Jim McAlister.