Stays Of Execution

Less than a week before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection, convicted killer William Kirkpatrick on Friday won an expected two-month stay of execution after claiming in a last-minute federal appeal that he was not guilty of a 1983 double murder. U.S. District Judge William Keller in Los Angeles delayed the execution--scheduled for 12:01 a.m. Jan. 26--until at least March 28 so Kirkpatrick can confer with new lawyers and prepare his case.

HOUSTON -- A former Dallas-area car wash employee on death row for killing two co-workers after he was fired in 2000 failed to get the U.S. Supreme Court to stop his execution Thursday. Robert Wayne Harris, 40, is to die at 6 p.m., Texas corrections officials said. He originally confessed to fatally shooting five people at the Mi-T-Fine car wash in Irving. He was charged in connection with all five deaths but tried in only two. His attorney argued in two petitions to the Supreme Court that Harris should not be executed because he is mentally impaired and did not receive a fair trial.

A Mexican man whose Oklahoma death sentence has been criticized by the Mexican government won an indefinite stay of execution from the state's highest court, citing a "serious matter" of international law. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals acted on an appeal from defense lawyers seeking a new trial for Gerardo Valdez based on an international treaty and new evidence the lawyers say shows Valdez was mentally impaired at the time of a 1989 murder.

A former Dallas-area car wash employee who was convicted of killing two co-workers a week after he was fired in 2000 appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to stay his execution. Robert Wayne Harris, 40, was due to be executed as of 6 p.m. Central time. Harris had originally confessed to fatally shooting five people at the Mi-T-Fine car wash in Irving, Texas, was charged in connection with all five but tried in two of the deaths. His attorneys argue Harris should not be executed because he is mentally retarded and did not receive a fair trial.

Attorney Charles M. Sevilla started smoking again last month, just the way he did in 1982, the last time his client, Robert Alton Harris, faced an execution date. Sevilla hadn't puffed on even one cigarette since Harris was spared--with four days to go--eight years ago. But by the week before April 3, the day the state of California had announced that it would execute Harris for two murders, Sevilla's office turned into what he called a "smoke chamber."

The execution that Bill Bradford wanted and then feared was postponed indefinitely on Thursday, two hours after officials at San Quentin State Prison moved the condemned man to Cell No. 1--the cell closest to the death chamber. U.S. District Judge Ronald S. W. Lew granted a stay of execution in response to court papers filed Wednesday in Los Angeles by Bradford's new lawyer, Robert R. Bryan.

A federal appeals panel late Sunday night overturned a temporary reprieve from the gas chamber for condemned slayer Robert Alton Harris that had been granted the day before by a federal district judge. The panel voted 2 to 1 to strike down a temporary restraining order issued by U.S.

Less than six hours before his scheduled execution this morning in the San Quentin gas chamber, murderer Robert Alton Harris won at least a temporary reprieve from a federal appeals court. After a day of legal maneuvering by attorneys for Harris and the state, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary stay of execution at 6:30 p.m. Monday.

The Supreme Court refused Monday afternoon to lift a federal judge's order that blocked today's scheduled 3 a.m. execution of Robert Alton Harris, who would have been the first murderer to die in California's gas chamber in 23 years. The Supreme Court ruling will delay his execution for weeks, and possibly months, state officials said. It ensures Harris a new hearing in federal court but does not mean that he is entitled to a new trial on his guilt.

The World Court in the Netherlands ordered the United States Wednesday to stay the executions of three Mexicans -- two in Texas and one in Oklahoma -- and reserved the right to intervene in dozens of more cases. Mexico took the U.S. government to the International Court of Justice at The Hague last month, saying more than 50 of its nationals on death row should get retrials because U.S. authorities breached an international treaty by failing to tell them of their rights to consular help.

This post has been corrected. See below for details. ABC News executives are breathing a sigh of relief that "Nightline" wasn't canceled outright even though the network is moving Jimmy Kimmel into its time slot However, it is probably only a stay of execution for the venerable newsmagazine show. In January, ABC is shifting "Nightline" from its longtime home of 11:35 p.m. to an hour later, at 12:35 a.m., so "Jimmy Kimmel Live" -- which had started at midnight -- can compete head-to-head with CBS' David Letterman and NBC's Jay Leno.

With just an hour to spare, the Supreme Court blocked the Wednesday evening execution in Texas of convicted murderer Hank Skinner, who maintains his innocence and who has sought DNA testing of key evidence for a decade. The justices issued a stay of execution and said they wanted more time to consider Skinner's appeal. It will probably be several weeks before the court decides whether to hear his case. Last year, the court ruled 5 to 4 that the Constitution does not give convicts the right to demand DNA testing of crime-scene evidence.

Newly seated Justice Sonia Sotomayor has cast her first recorded vote on the Supreme Court, joining a dissent by three liberal justices to stop a pending execution in Ohio. The full court turned down the last-minute appeal from lawyers for Jason Getsy late Monday evening by a 5-4 vote. Getsy, 33 and a convicted hit man, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 8 a.m. Pacific time today. In a 1995 murder-for-hire attack, Getsy shot Charles Serafino seven times, though the victim survived.

Human rights groups on Saturday condemned Iran for executing a 23-year-old woman who they maintained had received an unfair trial when she was convicted of murder as a juvenile. Delara Darabi was hanged Friday at Rasht Central Prison, according to Human Rights Watch, which said the woman was 17 when she was coerced into pleading guilty to killing her father's cousin. She later recanted, saying her 19-year-old boyfriend had committed the crime.

A federal appeals court gave a late reprieve to a man set to be executed Monday for the 1989 killing of an off-duty police officer in a case in which several witnesses have changed their accounts of the crime. Troy Davis, 40, was scheduled to die for the murder of Savannah Police Officer Mark MacPhail. But the three-judge panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the execution and ordered his attorneys to prove whether he can meet "stringent requirements" to press his appeal.

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a reprieve to a convicted murderer less than two hours before his scheduled execution for the 1989 slaying of an off-duty police officer. Family and advocates of Troy Anthony Davis, 39, contend that he deserves a new trial because seven of the nine witnesses who helped put him on death row have recanted their testimony.

The Supreme Court said Monday that it will consider limiting the Constitution's protection against "double jeopardy" and possibly overrule a precedent handed down just two years ago. The high court decision, due next year, could free prosecutors to bring new charges against a defendant who has already been punished once for his conduct. The ruling could also help clear up confusion in the law.

William A. Norris, one of the 10 federal appeals court judges who attempted to halt the execution of Robert Alton Harris, criticized Gov. Pete Wilson on Thursday night for attacking those judges before considering everything that led up to four last-minute stays of execution. On Wednesday, Wilson said "manipulative lawyers and indulgent judges" who issued the stays created a "macabre legal circus" in trying to prevent Harris' execution.

The U.S. Supreme Court halted the execution of convicted child killer Mark Dean Schwab, hours before he was scheduled to die in Florida. The move by the high court was widely expected as it considers the appeals of two Kentucky inmates challenging the same lethal three-drug combination used in Florida. The court has blocked executions in three other states since accepting the Kentucky case Sept. 25. Schwab was sentenced to death for the murder of 11-year-old Junny Rios-Martinez.