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James E. Coleman Jr., a Duke University law professor who is pursuing clemency for LeGrande, said it is important that experts act as scientists, not advocates.

"For the process to work, everybody has to bring in competent psychiatrists with integrity to do the assessment," he said. "The courts have to make sure that happens."

In LeGrande's case, he said, that has not happened.

Killer for hire

LeGrande, 47, was born in Stanly County, east of Charlotte, the fourth of six siblings, and was raised in Philadelphia. He told jurors and doctors that he attended college for two years, he once tried out with the Philadelphia Eagles football team, he was in the Air Force for four years and he worked at a post office for six.

In 1993, LeGrande was working at a restaurant in Albemarle when he was recruited by a co-worker, Tommy Munford, to kill Munford's estranged wife for $6,500. On July 27, 1993, Munford provided the gun, dropped off LeGrande near his wife's house and took his two children to the beach to provide himself an alibi. LeGrande waited several hours, went into the house and shot Ellen Munford twice in the back.

Munford testified against LeGrande, was allowed to plead guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison.

Thomas Munford, the victim's son, was 6 years old when his mother was killed. He is not convinced that LeGrande suffers from mental illness, noting the hours LeGrande had to think about his crime.

"He planned out well in advance what he was going to do. He had plenty of time to sit and think on it. I don't think he's mentally ill," said Munford, 19, of Virginia Beach, Va., who plans to witness the execution.

LeGrande says he does not think his execution will happen. He insists in various letters that he will be pardoned and will receive a settlement of as much as $3 billion from the state. After his release, LeGrande has indicated, he plans to leave North Carolina and take a private jet to a tropical island. He also plans to use his settlement money to host a "first meal" with T-bone steaks, garlic bread, fresh salads and loaded baked potatoes for him, Easley and the lawyers with the Attorney General's Office who are working to see him executed.

Such grandiose thinking is a recurring theme in LeGrande's life, according to relatives, doctors and lawyers who have interacted with him over the years.

His relatives say LeGrande would have wild mood swings from calmness to extreme anger. He would rant and rave to himself and pace back and forth. LeGrande's sister and half-sister suffer from bipolar disorder and chronic paranoid schizophrenia, respectively, which his attorneys say increases his likelihood of having mental illness.

After his arrest in 1995, LeGrande insisted on being his own lawyer. A state psychiatrist concluded that LeGrande had a personality disorder with narcissistic and grandiose traits and recommended a treatment of lithium, which LeGrande refused. A state psychologist said LeGrande did not appear to suffer from bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. LeGrande was found competent to stand trial and to be his own lawyer.

Before his trial in 1996, two lawyers appointed as standby counsel asked the judge to rule that LeGrande was incompetent. They said LeGrande had "grandiose delusions" about his legal abilities, was unprepared for trial and spurned their assistance because he thought they were conspiring with prosecutors.

The trial judge asked LeGrande whether he wanted to be heard on the challenge to his competency. LeGrande said he did not and tore up the lawyer's motion. The judge refused to hear the lawyers' request.

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