The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) has stayed the execution of Paul Storey and ordered the trial court to determine whether mitigating evidence related to the victim’s parents’ opposition to the death penalty could have been discovered previously. Storey was scheduled to be executed by the State of Texas next Wednesday, April 12, 2017. His attorneys filed a state habeas application with the CCA on March 31, 2017 asserting that the State denied Storey his right to due process because it introduced evidence it knew to be false, among other claims.
Despite knowing that the Cherry Family opposed capital punishment, prosecutors contended in their closing arguments at trial that “it should go without saying that all of Jonas [Cherry’s] family and everyone who loved him believe the death penalty is appropriate.”
Read coverage from the Texas Tribune.
View the Cherry’s video appeal for clemency.
Previous posts on Storey are available here and here.
This is the third Texas execution to be stayed to date in 2017.