The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles today recommended that Gov. Rick Perry commute the death sentence of Robert Lee Thompson, sentenced to die for a 1996 Houston convenience store robbery-murder, to life in prison.
There was no immediate word whether Perry will follow the board's request.
Thompson, 34, who was convicted under Texas' law of parties, is scheduled to be executed Thursday.
His attorney, Pat McCann, appealed the death sentence arguing that Thompson's accomplice Sammy Butler, fired the fatal shot. Butler was sentenced to life in prison.
The law of parties holds all participants in a crime equally culpable.
Source: Houston Chronicle, Nov. 18, 2009
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