Court Puts Off Execution of Texas Hitman

[Ghost in the Machine]

Court Puts Off Execution of Texas Hitman
Published: 7/11/07, 12:06 AM EDT
By MICHAEL GRACZYK
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) - A court delayed a hit man's execution Tuesday evening, more than an hour after he could have been put to death for killing a woman in a life insurance scheme concocted by her husband and brother-in-law.

The three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to issue a stay for Rolando Ruiz. The majority said they needed more time to rule on his arguments that a state-appointed lawyer in earlier appeals failed to identify his substance abuse and poor childhood as mitigating evidence jurors should have been allowed to consider before they decided on a death sentence.

Execution teams cannot begin a lethal injection procedure as long as appeals are pending.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons, who described Ruiz as "genuinely at a loss for words," said the prisoner "didn't seem like he had processed it yet.

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[lligrd]

1. Good, Don't See Why A Hitman Guilty Of One Murder

should be executed when we have hitmen guilty of many squatting in the White House.