Texas prepares for inmate’s execution in hopes that Supreme Court allows it to happen

By JUAN A. LOZANO
Associated Press

HOUSTON (AP) — Texas is moving ahead with preparations to execute a condemned inmate in the hopes that the U.S. Supreme Court will lift a lower court’s stay and allow the lethal injection to proceed. Forty-year-year-old Jedidiah Murphy had been scheduled to die Tuesday for the October 2000 killing of 80-year-old Bertie Lee Cunningham during a carjacking. However, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld a federal judge’s order from last week delaying the execution after Murphy’s lawyers questioned the evidence used to sentence him. The state attorney general’s office filed an appeal, though, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the execution to proceed on schedule. A Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman says preparations are underway.