Stays Of Execution

A federal judge in Nashville blocked the execution of a condemned child killer, hours before he was to become the first person to be put to death in Tennessee in 40 years. Robert Glen Coe, 43, was to die by injection at 1 a.m. today for the 1979 kidnapping, rape and murder of 8-year-old Cary Ann Medlin. U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger blocked the execution to consider a petition by Coe's attorneys contending that he is not mentally competent for execution.

A death row inmate condemned for killing a woman after slipping away from a work-release prison in 1977 was granted a stay to allow for DNA tests. Gov. Jeb Bush granted the reprieve 90 minutes before Amos King was to be executed by injection. It was the third stay this year for King. Courts ordered halts to scheduled executions in February and July. King, 48, was convicted of raping and murdering Natalie Brady, 68, in her Tarpon Springs home in 1977.

Gov. Jeb Bush issued a temporary stay of execution for one of the nation's only female serial killers because of questions about whether Aileen Wuornos is mentally competent to drop her appeals. Bush also issued a similar stay for Rigoberto Sanchez-Velasco, a triple killer who also dropped his appeals. He had been scheduled to die by lethal injection Wednesday, and Wuornos, convicted a decade ago in a widely publicized series of killings, was set to die Oct. 9.

The state Court of Criminal Appeals has stopped today's scheduled execution of a Honduran man convicted in the slaying of a clothing store manager. Lawyers for Heliberto Chi, 28, had asked the court for a reprieve in light of a U.S. Supreme Court decision last week to review lethal injection procedures in Kentucky after two inmates there argued the process was unconstitutionally cruel. The injection procedures are the same in Texas.

A Los Angeles federal judge on Wednesday stayed the execution of convicted triple-murderer Horace Kelly, a day after he was denied a hearing by the California Supreme Court. The order by Chief U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr. opens the door for Kelly's defense lawyers to challenge the fairness of his state court trials and renew their claims that he should not be put to death because he is insane. State prosecutors immediately appealed Hatter's order to the U.S.

Indonesia delayed the executions of three Islamic militants convicted in the Bali bombings that killed 202 people four years ago, after the condemned men said they wanted to file a final appeal, officials said. Amrozi Nurhasyim, Ali Gufron and Imam Samudra were among more than 30 people convicted in the 2002 nightclub bombings on the resort island, which officials say were carried out by the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah terrorist group.

Gov. George W. Bush, campaigning for president as a "compassionate conservative," blocked Thursday evening's scheduled execution of a convicted killer by approving his first reprieve in a Texas death penalty case. Bush said he approved a 30-day reprieve for Ricky Nolen McGinn so that potential DNA evidence that might exonerate him could be reviewed, although the U.S. Supreme Court had earlier denied McGinn's appeals.

Gov. Robert A. Taft on Monday delayed for the second time in two months the execution of a condemned man who says he's innocent. Taft granted John Spirko a 60-day reprieve at the request of Atty. Gen. Jim Petro, who says he needs that long to do DNA testing sought by Spirko's lawyers. Spirko was scheduled to die by lethal injection Nov. 15 for the 1982 killing of Betty Jane Mottinger, 48, who was abducted and repeatedly stabbed, then wrapped in a tarp and dumped in a field.