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Roque Attorneys Cite Mental Illness in Call for Leniency
10/08/2003
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/1008roque08.html
Roque attorneys cite mental illness in call for leniency
Jim Walsh
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 8, 2003 12:00 AM
The same psychiatrist who attacked a terrorism-backlash murder defendant's unsuccessful insanity defense tried to save his life Tuesday.
Jurors at Maricopa County Superior Court in Mesa are expected to start deliberating this afternoon about whether Frank Roque, 44, a former Mesa machinist, will be executed for gunning down a Sikh gasoline station owner in retaliation for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Dr. Jack Potts testified that Roque was mentally ill when he shot Balbir Singh Sodhi, 49, to death in Mesa on Sept. 15, 2001, but was not so sick that he was criminally insane and unable to tell right from wrong.
In a last-ditch attempt to save Roque's life, defense attorney Dan Patterson portrayed Roque's mental illness as one of 12 potential "mitigating factors" for leniency.
Others include Roque's below average intelligence and the fact that he was raised by a mentally ill mother in a dysfunctional family.
Singh Sodhi's family told jurors that Roque's victim was a generous, hard-working man who fled India for religious freedom in the United States and loved his adopted country.
Among Singh Sodhi's last acts were donating $75 to the Red Cross for the families of Sept. 11 victims and asking his brother to bring an American flag to his Chevron station at 80th Street and University Drive.
"I was very close to him. He was everything to me. He was my father, my friend," said Sukhwinder Singh Sodhi, 32. "He was an honest man and helped other people very much."
Rana Singh Sodhi, the victim's younger brother, said the family began immigrating to the United States in the 1980s after Sikhs, a minority religion in India, started fearing for their lives when Sikh bodyguards were blamed for the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
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