Stays Of Execution

A death-row inmate whose case drew protests from Pope John Paul II and the Italian government won a temporary reprieve Tuesday from the U.S. Supreme Court, which stayed his execution so it could review his appeal. Joseph Roger O'Dell III, 54, was to have been electrocuted Wednesday night for raping, sodomizing and strangling Helen Schartner outside a Virginia Beach nightclub in 1985.

One week before he is scheduled to die by lethal injection, convicted murderer William Kirkpatrick on Thursday backed away from his defiant demand that he be put to death, launching a last-minute appeal in federal court and proclaiming his innocence. Kirkpatrick, who last year admitted guilt and demanded an execution date in a profanity-laced letter to the U.S. Supreme Court, denied in legal papers filed Thursday that he murdered two young men in a robbery at a Burbank Taco Bell in 1983.

A week before his scheduled death by lethal injection, convicted murderer William Kirkpatrick on Thursday backed away from his defiant demand that he be put to death, launching a last-minute appeal in federal court and proclaiming his innocence. Kirkpatrick, who last year admitted guilt and demanded an execution date in a profanity-laced letter to the U.S. Supreme Court, denied in legal papers filed Thursday that he murdered two young men in a 1983 robbery of a Taco Bell restaurant in Burbank.

Following a judge's order last week, convicted killer William Kirkpatrick Jr.'s execution, originally set for 12:01 a.m. this Friday, has been delayed two months until at least March 28. The postponement for Kirpatrick's death by lethal injection will give the inmate time to confer with his attorneys. Kirkpatrick filed a last-minute appeal claiming he was innocent of the 1983 double murder that brought him the death sentence.

Less than a week before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection, convicted killer William Kirkpatrick on Friday won a two-month stay of execution after claiming in a last-minute federal appeal that he was innocent of a 1983 double murder. U.S. District Court Judge William Keller delayed the execution--scheduled for 12:01 a.m. next Friday--until at least March 28 so that Kirkpatrick could confer with new lawyers and prepare his case.

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.

Ten days before he was scheduled to die, journalist and Death Row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal on Monday was granted an indefinite delay of his execution for the 1981 murder of a Philadelphia police officer. Judge Albert F. Sabo, who presided over the 1982 trial that sent Abu-Jamal to Pennsylvania's Death Row, said there is not enough time to complete an ongoing hearing into whether the journalist deserves a new trial before the Aug. 17 execution date.

A British native won a stay of execution an hour before he was to die in the electric chair Thursday as the archbishop of Canterbury and others pleaded for leniency. U.S. District Judge Horace T. Ward delayed the execution of Nicholas Lee Ingram until this afternoon while he considers an appeal.

Henry Lee Lucas, the one-eyed drifter who once claimed to have killed hundreds of people, got a reprieve less than 10 hours before he was to be executed for the 1979 murder of a hitchhiker. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted the stay for the 58-year-old Lucas. The court said the prosecution had suppressed evidence. Lucas was convicted in 1985 and sentenced to die for strangling a woman, who was never identified. At one time, he confessed to nearly 600 slayings but recanted.

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.