[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA.

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 13



TEXAS---- Reprieve Granted For Texas Prisoner Facing Execution


The state's highest criminal appeals court has blocked the scheduled execution 
this week of a 40-year-old man convicted of fatally shooting a 5-year-old boy 
sleeping with his mother at a Corpus Christi apartment 20 years ago.

Larry Hatten had ordered no appeals be filed to stop his scheduled Wednesday 
evening lethal injection in Huntsville for the slaying of Isaac Jackson.

But the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has given him a reprieve to resolve a 
1997 filing with his trial court in Nueces County. The judges said Monday in a 
3-page ruling that the filing never was decided by the trial court and was 
never properly forwarded to the appeals court.

The appeals court has given the trial court 6 months to resolve the claims in 
the in filing.

(source: Associated Press)

****************************

Executions under Rick Perry, 2001-present-----278

Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982-present----517

Perry #--------scheduled execution date-----name---------Tx. #

279------------Oct. 28------------------Miguel Paredes--------518

280------------Jan. 14------------------Rodney Reed-----------519

281------------Jan. 15------------------Richard Vasquez-------520

282------------Jan. 21-------------------Arnold Prieto--------521

283------------Jan. 28-------------------Garcia White---------522

284------------Feb. 4--------------------Donald Newbury-------523

285------------Feb. 10-------------------Les Bower, Jr.-------524

286------------Mar. 11-------------------Manuel Vasquez-------525

287------------Mar. 18-------------------Randall Mays---------526

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)






FLORIDA:

Prosecutors seeking death penalty for man accused of killing 1-year-old Tampa 
boy


Hillsborough County prosecutors will seek the death penalty against Austin 
Hamilton, who is accused of killing his girlfriend's 1-year-old son in August, 
officials said Monday.

Hamilton, 24, has pleaded not guilty 1st-degree murder and aggravated child 
abuse charges. But Tampa police detectives said that shortly after he was 
detained, Hamilton admitted beating Sincere Williams repeatedly with a belt and 
dropping him on his head. Sincere died that night at St. Joseph's Hospital.

A medical examiner's report concluded that Sincere had succumbed to blunt-force 
trauma to the lower abdomen.

According to a police report, Hamilton told detectives he "lost control" when, 
in the middle of changing the child's diaper, Sincere began to urinate all over 
their motel room. After hitting the boy's backside at least 10 times with the 
belt, Hamilton picked him up and dropped him, the report said.

Following her son's death, Tiffany Williams said she hoped Hamilton would get 
the death penalty.

(source: Tampa Bay Times)