The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has granted a stay of execution for Tilon Carter. Originally scheduled to be executed on February 7, 2017, Carter has spent 11 years on death row for the 2004 robbery and murder of 89-year-old James Eldon Tomlin in Fort Worth. The court granted the stay because the trial court missed the deadline to notify the Office of Capital and Forensic Writs of Carter’s execution date. Jolie McCullough of the Texas Tribune reports:
According to the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, if the trial court fails to notify the convict’s lawyer and the Office of Capital and Forensic Writs that an execution date was set within two business days of setting it, the court must reset the execution date. In Carter’s case, it took three days.
Read more from the Texas Tribune.
This marks the second stay of 2017 and the first from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Earlier this week, John Ramirez received a last minute stay halting his February 2, 2017 execution. The State of Texas has put one person to death this year. Although there are no other executions scheduled for the remainder of February, there are five executions scheduled in Texas through July.