April 21
TEXAS:
Court lifts stays of execution for Turner, 2 other death row inmates
The U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the way for Texas and 2 other states to
set new execution dates for three inmates it granted last-minute reprieves
last year.
Justices today rejected appeals from Carlton Turner Jr. of Texas, Thomas
Arthur of Alabama and Earl Wesley Berry of Mississippi. The court had
blocked their executions last fall while it considered a challenge to
Kentucky's lethal injection procedures.
The justices said last week that those procedures aren't
unconstitutionally cruel. The decision almost certainly will lead to a
resumption of executions after a 7-month hiatus.
Turner was condemned for killing his adoptive parents at their Irving home
in 1998.
Turner was 19 when he shot Carlton Turner Sr. and Tonya Turner several
times in the head in 1998 at their home in the upscale Valley Ranch
neighborhood. Prosecutors say he bought new clothes and jewelry but
continued living in the house as his parents' bodies rotted in the garage
in the August heat.
(source: Associated Press)