Execution Dates Set for 2 Texas Condemned Killers

Texas authorities have set 2011 execution dates for two men who were condemned for killing teenagers.

State District Judge Maria Teresa Herr on Thursday set a July 7, 2011, execution date for a Mexican national condemned in the 1994 rape and killing of 16-year-old Adria Sauceda in San Antonio.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Feb. 10 refused to reconsider additional DNA testing requested by 37-year-old Humberto Leal of Monterrey, Mexico. Leal had hoped further testing would exonerate him, the San Antonio Express-News reported. The appeals court ruled last year that because of evidence and extensive DNA testing done for Leal's trial, additional testing was not likely to change the outcome.

Sauceda's body was found on a road near a party they both had attended.

Separately, State District Judge Sharen Wilson on Thursday ordered the execution of Michael Wayne Hall on Feb. 15, 2011. Hall was condemned in the torture and killing of Amy Robinson, a 19-year-old mentally impaired woman, who was shot with arrows, a pellet gun and a rifle.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram said the proposed execution date is 13 years to the day since Robinson's death.

Another man convicted in the killing, Robert Neville, was executed in 2006. Both men worked with Robinson at a grocery store.