Texas Halts Lethal Injection
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has halted the execution of a death-row inmate scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection today.
The Texas court issued a stay late last night for Heliberto Chi after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision a week ago to consider the constitutionality of lethal injection, the New York Times reports. At the time, Texas officials indicated they planned to proceed with executions anyway.
Last week, the Court of Criminal Appeals appeared to be of a like mind, refusing to stop two other executions, the Dallas Morning News reports. In the first case, the inmate failed to meet a deadline for filing a challenge to the lethal injection issue, and the U.S. Supreme Court also stayed out of the case. In the second, the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in and issued a stay.
Andre Keilen, executive director of the Texas Defender Service, told the Dallas Morning News, “The Texas Court did the right thing instead of waiting for another mandate from the Supreme Court.”
