Death Penalty: A man facing execution in Texas Wednesday, has asked the Supreme Court to grant a stay pending resolution of the Kentucky lethal injection case of Baze v. Rees, as reported by Michael Graczyk in this Associated Press story. Heliberto Chi, a Honduran sentenced to death for murdering a clothing store employee during a robbery in 2000, is hoping that the Court will spare him as it did Texas murderer Carlton Turner last week.

Sex Offender penalties in Florida tripled Monday as a new sex crime law took effect. A report by AP writer Travis Reed calls the new law one of the toughest in the country, tripling the maximum sentence for soliciting sex with a minor to 15 years. This is very bad news for habitual sex offender William Joe Mitchell, a habitual criminal sought by Florida police for luring a 15-year-old girl to meet him for sex Monday. Mitchell, who is 46 and has 14 prior arrests, met the girl while trolling on Myspace.com, telling her that he was 24, as Travis Reed reports here. The girl was found alive today after Mitchell left her at a WalMart.