TEXAS – Bobby Lee Hines – Execution DELAYED

may 21, 2012 Source : http://www.chron.com

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The execution of a man early next month for the slaying of a Dallas woman at her apartment more than 20 years ago has been delayed.

Dallas County prosecutors asked a judge to withdraw the June 6 execution date for 39-year-old Bobby Lee Hines because results of additional DNA testing in his case won’t be available by then. District Court Judge Don Adams in Dallas approved the request Friday.

Hines was convicted of the 1991 murder of 26-year-old Michelle Wendy Haupt. She was stabbed with an ice pick and strangled.

Hines was 19 at the time and on probation for a burglary conviction. He was staying with the apartment complex maintenance man who lived next door to the victim and had access to all the keys in the development.

DELAWARE – Shannon Jonhson execution Delayed

april 19 source : http://www.delawareonline.com

WILMINGTON – A federal judge on Wednesday indefinitely delayed Friday’s scheduled execution of convicted killer Shannon M. Johnson, saying he needed more time to “digest” a massive legal filing by the Delaware Federal Public Defender’s Office, which is seeking to stop the lethal injection.

Johnson, 28, waived all his remaining appeals to speed his execution and was declared competent to waive those legal rights by Superior Court Judge M. Jane Brady last month.

However, federal defenders acting on behalf of Johnson’s sister, Lakeisha Ford, argue that Johnson is not competent due to mental illness and substandard intelligence and a state court competency review was flawed.

Johnson was convicted in 2008 of the murder of 25-year-old Cameron Hamlin. Hamlin’s father, Vandrick, was in the courtroom Wednesday and seemed taken aback by the turn of events.

Afterward, he was briefly speechless before saying that he was disappointed by U.S. District Chief Judge Gregory M. Sleet’s ruling to stay Johnson’s execution.

State prosecutors and Johnson’s court-appointed attorney, Jennifer-Kate Aaronson, also seemed stunned by the ruling and objected to the delay. Deputy Attorney General Paul Wallace described the lengthy brief filed by public defenders on Friday — six days before the execution — as a ploy designed “to ensure they get a stay.”

“It is Mr. Johnson’s view that he has been accorded all constitutional due process,” Aaronson told Sleet.

Wallace told Sleet that the state would appeal the issue to the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

The appeal seeking to reinstate Johnson’s Friday execution was filed with the Philadelphia-based appeals court several hours later. The 30-page motion to vacate the stay of execution filed with the appeals court mirrors the brief state prosecutors filed with Sleet on Monday, opposing the federal defender’s petition. It concludes that Sleet lacked jurisdiction to issue a stay because the state court’s finding that Johnson is competent was reasonable.

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OKLAHOMA – Garry Allen execution again is delayed

Garry Thomas Allen is now scheduled to be executed April 12 after Gov. Mary Fallin issued an additional 26-day stay Tuesday.

Allen, 56, was set to be executed Saturday after a 30-day stay that was granted in February expired.

Last month, Fallin granted the 30-day stay from the original Feb. 16 execution date to allow time to evaluate the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board’s clemency recommendation.

The governor met with the Federal Public Defender’s Office, the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office and the victim’s family to review Allen’s case and, after examining the arguments and evidence, determined that clemency should be denied and the sentence of death shall be carried out, spokesman Alex Weintz said.

Allen was sentenced to death for the 1986 Oklahoma City murder of the mother of his two children, Lawanna Gail Titsworth, 42. Allen’s attorneys have said he was mentally impaired when he killed Titsworth.

source : http://www.tulsaworld.com