From the San Antonio Express-News, as of 5:14 PM:
UPDATE: A San Antonio man may not be facing death by lethal injection today following an order from Chief U.S. District Judge Fred Biery to grant a stay of execution for Anthony Bartee in relation to a civil rights suit filed by Bartee’s attorney against the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office.
The suit is part of a flurry of appeals Houston-based attorney David Dow filed today on behalf of his client requesting additional DNA testing. In the past few hours the U.S. Supreme Court denied the request for a stay and the appeal.
The civil rights lawsuit filed in federal court — that has since been appealed by the District Attorney’s office — is the only pending matter keeping the 6 p.m. execution from occurring.
And while Biery issued an order staying the execution that states attorneys on both sides must file and confer by May 15, the court will now have to address the response of the suit by the DA’s Office. The execution itself has not yet been officially called off in Huntsville.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/texas-man-s-execution-stopped-at-least-temporarily-1.3695000
From the Associated Press and published today at 4:41 PM in the Houston Chronicle:
A federal judge in San Antonio has at least temporarily stopped the execution of a rapist who was on parole when prosecutors say he killed a neighbor and stole the man’s motorcycle.
U.S. District Judge Fred Biery granted a reprieve Wednesday afternoon to 55-year-old Anthony Bartee after his lawyers filed a civil rights lawsuit against Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed. Bartee was scheduled for lethal injection later in the day.
His lawyers want additional items from the crime scene to undergo DNA testing.
The prosecutor’s office immediately appealed the court order to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
http://www.chron.com/news/article/Texas-man-s-execution-stopped-at-least-temporarily-3526586.php