Judge Temporarily Delays Execution Of Convicted Texas Killer Anthony Bartee

Texas Death House at 'The Walls' Unit
in Huntsville, TX. Holding cells are on
the left; execution chamber is at the far
end of the corridor

Anthony Bartee, 55, a paroled rapist who was sent to death row for killing his neighbor and stealing the murdered man’s cherry red Harley-Davidson motorcycle more than 15 years ago, won a temporary last-minute stay Wednesday as Texas prison officials prepared to execute him. 

U.S. District Judge Fred Biery granted the reprieve Wednesday afternoon after Bartee’s lawyers filed a civil rights lawsuit against Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed. 

His lawyers want additional items from the crime scene to be tested for DNA. 

The prosecutor's office immediately appealed the court order to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. 

Bartee also had an appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court, but it was rejected within about 30 minutes of Biery's order. 

Bartee was scheduled to die just after 6 p.m. Wednesday for the August 1996 shooting and stabbing death of David Cook, 37. 

The death warrant is valid until midnight. 

Cook was stabbed in the shoulder and shot twice in the head with his own 9-millimeter pistol, according to court documents, and the gun and the motorcycle were both missing from his home when his body was discovered on Aug. 17, 1996. 

According to court documents, Bartee had asked an acquaintance earlier that summer to help him rob and kill a neighbor who had some credit cards and a motorcycle that Bartee wanted. 

2 days before the body was found, court documents show that Bartee approached another acquaintance and said he was going to “ace some white dude out,” court documents say. 

Later that day he showed up at the acquaintance’s home, riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and claiming to be carrying a gun. 

Witnesses described the motorcycle as being similar or identical to the one that belonged to the victim. 

Bartee’s attorneys, however, argue that the inmate may be innocent and say prosecutors had cigarette butts and drinking glasses from the crime scene that still needed to be tested for DNA, possibly to exclude Bartee. 

They also contend his trial lawyers were deficient for not pursuing the tests. 

State lawyers contend the evidence isn't new and the appeals are delay tactics. 

The execution would be the 6th this year in Texas. 

Source: Associated Press, May 2, 2012