[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 11


TEXAS----impending execution

Supreme Court declines to block Texas execution


The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to block the scheduled execution of a Texas 
death row inmate who killed two men after one of them mocked him for falling 
for a fake drug deal.

The court's ruling on appeals for 48-year-old Christopher Wilkins came about 
three hours before his scheduled Wednesday evening lethal injection. It would 
be the first execution in the nation this year.

Wilkins' attorneys had argued to the Supreme Court that he had poor legal help 
at his trial and during earlier appeals and that the courts improperly refused 
to authorize money for a more thorough investigation of those claims to support 
other appeals and a clemency petition.

State attorneys argued courts had rejected similar appeals and that defense 
lawyers were simply employing delaying tactics.

(source: Associated Press)