HUNTSVILLE, Texas – The Latest on the scheduled execution of Texas inmate Terry Edwards (all times local):
10:25 p.m.
A man convicted of committing a fatal robbery at a Dallas-area Subway shop weeks after he was fired from his job there has been executed at a Texas prison.
Forty-three-year-old Terry Edwards was put to death by lethal injection Thursday night for the $3,000 holdup at a Subway restaurant where two employees were gunned down in 2002.
The execution is the second this year in Texas and the third nationally. The punishment was delayed several hours while the U.S. Supreme Court considered multiple last-day appeals from Edwards' lawyers.
Evidence showed Edwards worked at the restaurant in Balch Springs, about 15 miles southeast of Dallas, but had been fired for stealing from the cash register. A 26-year-old mother of two, Mickell Goodwin, and the 34-year-old store manager, Tommy Walker, were fatally shot in the holdup.
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9:30 p.m.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to block the execution of a Texas prisoner condemned for committing a fatal robbery at a Dallas-area sandwich shop weeks after he was fired from his job there.
Terry Edwards is set for lethal injection Thursday evening for the $3,000 holdup at a Subway restaurant where two employees were gunned down in 2002.
Multiple appeals before the high court temporarily delayed the punishment for more than three hours. Edwards' attorneys asked the justices to reopen his case to investigate claims that a court-appointed lawyer earlier in the appeals process provided deficient help by abandoning him. The court two weeks ago agreed to review the case of another Texas death row inmate who raised claims about poor legal help.
Another appeal for Edwards wanted Texas prison officials to test the pentobarbital used for lethal injections to ensure its potency.
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7:10 p.m.
Texas prison officials have temporarily delayed the scheduled execution of a 43-year-old convicted killer while the U.S. Supreme Court considers multiple appeals intended to keep him from lethal injection.
Attorneys for inmate Terry Edwards are arguing his case should be reopened so they can show that poor legal help at his trial resulted in an unjust conviction and that he had deficient legal assistance during earlier stages of appeals. Another appeal before the high court Thursday night raises questions about whether the pentobarbital Texas uses in lethal injections should be tested for its potency before Edwards is put to death.
State attorneys are opposing any delay.
The court order setting Edwards' execution gives the state has a six-hour window, ending at midnight, to carry out the punishment.
Edwards was convicted of a 2002 robbery at a Dallas-area Subway sandwich shop where two employees were killed.
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4:30 p.m.
A 43-year-old convicted killer has been moved to a small cell a few steps from the Texas death chamber where he's awaiting the outcome of federal court appeals his attorneys have filed to try to put off his lethal injection.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark says inmate Terry Edwards appears apprehensive following his transfer about 45 miles Thursday afternoon from the East Texas prison that houses death row to another prison in downtown Huntsville where executions are carried out.
The death warrant specifies Edwards can be executed after 6 p.m. for a 2002 robbery of a Dallas-area Subway sandwich shop where two people were shot and killed. State officials will hold off on the punishment until all appeals are resolved. The warrant expires at midnight.
At least two appeals are at the U.S. Supreme Court.
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12:10 a.m.
Attorneys for 43-year-old Texas death row inmate Terry Edwards are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop his scheduled lethal injection for a fatal robbery more than 14 years ago at a Dallas-area Subway sandwich shop.
Evidence showed Edwards worked at the restaurant but was fired a few weeks earlier for stealing. An employee and the store manager were killed in the $3,000 holdup.
One appeal raises questions about the competence of his attorney in earlier stages of his appeal. Another appeal at the Supreme Court seeks testing of pentobarbital Texas uses for lethal injections to ensure its potency.
The 43-year-old Edwards is scheduled to be put to death on Thursday evening. He would be the second prisoner executed this year in Texas and the third nationally.
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