Friday, September 28, 2007

Texas execution stayed -- others in doubt

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced around 10:15 CST Thursday night that Carlton Turner’s execution was stayed.

Attorneys for Carlton Turner Jr., a suburban Dallas man condemned for killing his parents, had appealed to the high court hoping the justices’ review of lethal injection procedures in Kentucky, announced earlier this week, could keep him from execution.

In a brief, one paragraph order the court said it had granted his stay of execution. The order came more than four hours after he could have been executed and less than two hours before the death warrant would have expired at midnight CDT.

Attention now turns to Heliberto Chi’s scheduled execution for next week.

The Houston Chronicle has more.

In light of the “rule of five” for stays of executions at the SCOTUS, I suspect all nonvolunteer executions are at least now in doubt until the lethal injection mess is sorted out. It's late & I am sure NCADP will be sending out an alert in the morning.

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