Appeals court stays execution of Houston man
HUNTSVILLE – The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday stayed the execution of a man convicted in the 1991 rape and murder of a 20-year-old Houston bank teller to allow his lawyers to file a new petition alleging that he is developmentally disabled based on previously unavailable testing results.
The ruling came less than three hours before Robert James Campbell, 41, was to be put to death with a massive injection of pentobarbital at the state's Huntsville death house.
He would have been the eighth Texas killer executed this year and the first since last month's botched Oklahoma execution of Clayton Lockett intensified debate over whether the death penalty constitutes unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment.
Attorneys for Campbell had argued that he is intellectually disabled and, therefore, ineligible for execution. They also had argued that the state should be forced to disclose the source of its lethal drug, which was obtained from a lightly regulated compounding pharmacy.
More at http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Appeals-court-stays-execution-of-Houston-man-5475234.php .
= new reply since forum marked as read
