A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling delaying the execution of a Texas inmate who had been scheduled to receive a lethal injection this week for fatally shooting an 80-year-old woman more than two decades ago. Jedidiah Murphy had been set to be executed Tuesday evening at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the October 2000 death of Bertie Lee Cunningham during a carjacking in a suburb of Dallas. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld a judge’s order from last week th
HOUSTON — A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a ruling delaying this week’s scheduled execution of a Texas inmate for fatally shooting an 80-year-old woman more than two decades ago.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld the judge’s order. The three-judge panel said that another case before the appeals court that was brought by a different Texas death row inmate raises similar issues.Rio de Janeiro’s security forces launch raids in 3 favelas to target criminals“We agree with the district court that a stay is appropriate at least until a decision in that case,” the three-judge panel wrote.
Murphy has admitted his guilt in Cunningham’s death but has long denied he committed the other crimes. His attorneys have argued the crimes were the strongest evidence prosecutors had of future dangerousness but they allege the evidence was riddled with problems, including a questionable identification of Murphy by one of the victims.
Texas prosecutors have argued against the DNA testing, saying state law only allows for post-conviction testing of evidence related to guilt or innocence and not to a defendant’s sentence.“The public’s interest is not advanced by postponing execution any further ... Two decades after murdered Bertie Cunningham, justice should no longer be denied,” the Texas Attorney General’s Office wrote in court documents.
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