Texas is scheduled to carry out its second execution of 2013, Thursday night in Huntsville. It would be the 494th post-Furman Texas execution since 1982, and the 255th execution conducted under the administration of Governor Rick Perry. Texas has the nation's most active death chamber and accounts for more than 37% of the executions in America's death penalty states.
A Tyler man convicted of fatally shooting a man and afterward raping his fiancee while accomplices stole items from the couple's house is set for execution tonight.When he was arrested for the slaying in Smith County, Rickey Lynn Lewis had been in and out of Texas prisons five times in fewer than seven years and had been paroled six months earlier from his third burglary conviction.
On Tuesday, Lewis, 50, of Tyler is scheduled to become the second man executed in Texas this year. Three more are scheduled later this month in the nation's most active death penalty state.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Friday rejected a clemency petition for Lewis, and the U.S. Supreme Court a week ago refused to review Lewis' case.
"I think at this point we're out of options," said Lewis' attorney, Seth Kretzer.
To date, there have been five executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,325 post-Furman 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), Tuesday.
According to TDCJ, 11 additional execution dates have been set for 2013, including six scheduled in the next six weeks. More will be added.
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