FAYETTEVILLE — A federal magistrate judge denied a convicted murderer’s bid to get out of prison and into the Arkansas State Hospital.
Michael D. Fitzhugh, 58, was convicted of first-degree murder in the September 1985 murder of Ruby Dugan and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Dugan was killed in her Fayetteville home. Fitzhugh, who was living with Dugan, hit her on the head several times with a claw hammer and stabbed her four times in the chest, according to court documents.
Fitzhugh then dragged Dugan’s body to his bedroom where he covered her with a blanket and put a cross on her forehead and a Bible by the door. He later confessed to police.
Fitzhugh is being held at the Arkansas Department of Correction Brickey’s Unit.
Fitzhugh contends he was legally insane when he killed Dugan and was incompetent to stand trial. He claims to suffer from paranoid schizophrenia and said he didn’t know right from wrong.
“I had thought that woman, it was time for her to die,” Fitzhugh told the judge. “I didn’t know her. I was in her house and she wanted me to fix the antenna and get a dead dog out from under her house.”
A petition was filed earlier this year for writ of habeas corpus seeking Fitzhugh’s release from prison.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Erin Setser determined Tuesday another inmate improperly filed the petition on Fitzhugh’s behalf and Fitzhugh hadn’t read the pleadings.
“It was his idea,” Fitzhugh said. “He asked questions and I answered and he wrote it down. I couldn’t understand enough about what was going on to help myself. I felt like he knew what he was doing.”
Setser said she couldn’t consider the pleadings and dismissed the petition. The judge told Fitzhugh he is free to file on his own behalf.
“I’ve been locked up for 27 years and I don’t know anything about that,” Fitzhugh said. “I don’t have the know-how or understanding to do that.”
Fitzhugh told the judge he feels like he’s done enough time and would like to be able to petition for parole.
“It’s inhumane to keep people locked up in jail with no way to have a chance to get back into society,” Fitzhugh said.