Robert Thompson's execution date is just over an hour away. Thompson, his attorneys, and reporters are waiting on Governor Rick Perry to accept or reject the Board of Pardons and Paroles that Thompson's death sentence be commuted to life in prison.
Earlier today, AP writer Michael Graczyk filed, "Texas governor to decide condemned killer's fate."
The fate of a man facing execution Thursday evening for his role in a fatal robbery was in the hands of Gov. Rick Perry after the state parole board recommended the death sentence be commuted to life in prison.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles made the rare recommendation Wednesday for Robert Lee Thompson, 34, who was not the triggerman in the fatal shooting of a Houston convenience store clerk. The shooter, Sammy Butler, was convicted and received life in prison.
Perry was not required to follow the recommendation of the board, whose members he appoints.
"The governor has received the board's recommendation but has not made a decision," spokeswoman Allison Castle said Wednesday.
Thompson's lawyer, Patrick McCann, also had an appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the lethal injection, which would be the 23rd this year in Texas and second in as many nights.
The parole board's 5-2 vote came in response to a petition from McCann, who argued that the case was similar to that of Kenneth Foster, who was also convicted and sentenced to die under the law of parties. Under that law, offenders conspiring to commit one felony like robbery can all be held responsible for another ensuing crime, such as murder.
Perry commuted Foster's sentence to life two years ago. Foster became only the second inmate since Texas resumed carrying out executions in 1982 who won a recommendation from the parole board as his execution loomed.
Allan Turner has updated, "Parole board urges Perry to spare Houston killer," at the Houston Chronicle website.
Texas' Board of Pardons and Paroles on Wednesday recommended that Gov. Rick Perry spare the life of Houston killer Robert Lee Thompson, who is scheduled to be executed tonight in Huntsville.
A Perry spokeswoman did not indicate when the governor, who has voluntarily commuted only one death sentence in his tenure as chief executive, might rule in the case. As of this afternoon, the execution still was scheduled.
Thompson, 34, was sentenced to die in a law-of-parties case stemming from the December 1996 slaying of clerk Mansoor Rahim during a robbery at a Braeswood Boulevard convenience store. Thompson's lawyer, Pat McCann, argued that the fatal shot was fired by his client's accomplice, Sammy Butler. Under Texas' law of parties, both robbers were eligible for the death penalty. But Butler, the gunman, was sentenced to life in prison.
The pardon board's action marked the second time in two days that Houston killers received hope of escaping execution.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal granted a 90-day stay to Gerald Eldridge, 45, who was sentenced to die for the 1993 murder of his former girlfriend, Cynthia Bogany, and her 9-year-old daughter, Chirrisa. Eldridge's lawyer argued that the killer might be seriously mentally ill and incompetent to be executed. Under Texas law, one must understand that he will be executed and why in order to legally be put to death.
After Wednesday's initial victory before the pardons board, McCann acknowledged that he was “too scared to be optimistic.” Still, he noted the only time Perry voluntarily commuted a death sentence also involved a law of parties case.
Earlier coverage is here.
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