The U.S. Supreme Court blocked the scheduled execution of Texas murderer Carlton Turner after his attorneys’ argument that death by lethal injection amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.
Turner was to die for killing his parents. He has admitted fatally shooting his parents, Carlton Turner Sr., 43, and Tonya Turner, 40, several times in the head in their Irving home.
The high court stopped the execution more than four hours after Turner could have been put to death and less than two hours before his execution warrant would have expired.
The court agreed to review a case in Kentucky which uses the same method of execution.
"I'm relieved that the Supreme Court stepped in," said a member of
texans for public justice. "I'm hopeful that the state of Texas now recognizes that this is a serious constitutional issue and will stop those executions itself."
Last-ditch appeals by Turner's attorneys earlier had failed to stop the pending execution despite defense arguments that such Texas executions should cease until the Supreme Court rules whether lethal injection is legal.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals refused to delay Turner's execution on a 5-4 vote. In his dissenting opinion, Judge Tom Price wrote, "I do not understand why we would allow this applicant to proceed to execution without our having resolved that question."
David Dow, a professor at the University of Houston Law Center and one of Turner's attorneys, said he was surprised the Texas appeals court didn't intervene to stop executions until the Supreme Court rules on lethal injection.
Texas uses a cocktail of three drugs that sedate and paralyze an inmate before stopping the heart. Critics say the method could inflict great pain.
Cruel and unusual execution
Linear Mode
