Texas is scheduled to carry out its 15th execution of the year, tonight in Huntsville. It would be the state's 462nd execution since 1982. Texas has far and away the most active death chamber in America, accounting for more than 37% of the nation's post-Furman executions.
The Houston Chronicle reports, "Execution set Tuesday in Houston tenors' slayings."
For seven years the investigation stagnated. Then, in 1995, sheriff's deputies using sophisticated new fingerprint technology linked a bloody print from Henderson's apartment to Derrick Jackson, a Houston man serving 12 years for aggravated robbery. Jackson denied any involvement but was convicted of the double-murder in 1998.
Jackson is to be executed Tuesday, becoming the 15th killer put to death in Texas this year. Houston lawyers last week were reviewing the case but were uncertain if they would find grounds for further appeals.
And:
Years after Jackson's conviction, the way police handled the case was criticized by Michael Bromwich, the independent investigator hired to review operations of the department's troubled crime lab.
In his 2007 report, Brom-wich found that a technician apparently manipulated lab findings to bolster the case against detectives' prime suspect of the moment.
When an early suspect had Type O blood, Bromwich wrote, the employee neglected to report that Type B blood was found on an apartment door. Only when a charge was lodged against Jackson, who has Type B blood, was the fact added to the report.
Jackson's would be the 114th execution ordered from Harris County; more executions than any state in the nation. Virginia has carried out 107 executions; Oklahoma, 92. To date, there have been 31 executions in the nation in 2010, and 1,219 executions since 1977.
Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CDT), tonight.According to TDCJ, three more executions are scheduled in Texas during 2010. More execution dates will likely be set by state district courts this year.
Karl Keys at Capital Defense Weekly notes execution dates in Texas and other states.
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