HUNTSVILLE -- A Texas Death Row inmate received a stay of execution Tuesday afternoon after his lawyers questioned whether the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has resolved whether the state's lethal-injection procedures are constitutional.
Derrick Sonnier, convicted of killing a suburban Houston woman and her 2-year-old son in 1991, would have been the first Texas inmate put to death in nearly nine months.
Executions had been on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court considered a challenge to injection procedures in a Kentucky case.
In October, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals halted the execution of Arlington killer Heliberto Chi on the same issues -- that lethal injection procedures were unconstitutionally cruel. Although the Supreme Court ruled six weeks ago that the Kentucky injection method was constitutional and cleared the way for executions to resume nationally, Texas' highest criminal court hasn't ruled in the Chi case, one of two Texas capital cases case with similar claims.
"If they've got these cases up there, it really just kind of violates basic legal principles" to hold executions, said David Dow, one of the attorneys who filed the late appeal in Sonnier's case. "My hat's off to the [appeals court]," Dow said of the stay. "I didn't think they would" grant the stay.
Sonnier, 40, declined to comment from a small holding cell just a few feet from the death chamber. He was told of the stay by a senior warden and was allowed to call family and friends to let them know before he was returned to Death Row, about 45 miles to the east at a prison near Livingston.
"I respect the court's decision," said Roe Wilson, a Harris County assistant district attorney who was handling Sonnier's case and sought the execution. "This is a terrible offense. I feel for the victims' relatives, and I hope this is an issue that is resolved soon."
It is not clear how Tuesday's outcome will affect 13 executions scheduled in Texas in coming months, including two more in the next two weeks. Three condemned prisoners in other states have been put to death since the Supreme Court ruled on the Kentucky case.
Source: star-telegram.com
Derrick Sonnier, convicted of killing a suburban Houston woman and her 2-year-old son in 1991, would have been the first Texas inmate put to death in nearly nine months.
Executions had been on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court considered a challenge to injection procedures in a Kentucky case.
In October, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals halted the execution of Arlington killer Heliberto Chi on the same issues -- that lethal injection procedures were unconstitutionally cruel. Although the Supreme Court ruled six weeks ago that the Kentucky injection method was constitutional and cleared the way for executions to resume nationally, Texas' highest criminal court hasn't ruled in the Chi case, one of two Texas capital cases case with similar claims.
"If they've got these cases up there, it really just kind of violates basic legal principles" to hold executions, said David Dow, one of the attorneys who filed the late appeal in Sonnier's case. "My hat's off to the [appeals court]," Dow said of the stay. "I didn't think they would" grant the stay.
Sonnier, 40, declined to comment from a small holding cell just a few feet from the death chamber. He was told of the stay by a senior warden and was allowed to call family and friends to let them know before he was returned to Death Row, about 45 miles to the east at a prison near Livingston.
"I respect the court's decision," said Roe Wilson, a Harris County assistant district attorney who was handling Sonnier's case and sought the execution. "This is a terrible offense. I feel for the victims' relatives, and I hope this is an issue that is resolved soon."
It is not clear how Tuesday's outcome will affect 13 executions scheduled in Texas in coming months, including two more in the next two weeks. Three condemned prisoners in other states have been put to death since the Supreme Court ruled on the Kentucky case.
Source: star-telegram.com
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