The state trial judge has withdrawn the execution warrant in the controversial case of Charles Dean Hood. AP story by Michael Graczyk is here. Update: A later story by Graczyk is here. The most interesting part, in my view, is that even though Texas DCJ could have legally gone ahead at 11:30 p.m., they did not because they did not believe they had time to do it right. Good call. A new date will be set for this vermin, and the ramifications for other cases of a possibly botched execution were not worth the risk.
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Thirteen years ago, Japanese exchange student Ken Yamamoto was burned to death in his Oklahoma City apartment. Terry Lyn Short had thrown a firebomb into the apartment downstairs, which was occupied by his former girlfriend and others. "Yamamoto was rushed to a hospital with third-degree burns over almost his entire body. He survived for about 30 hours, long enough for his mother to fly from Japan and be by his side before he died," reports the AP.
Overdue justice for this crime was finally carried out shortly after 6:00 p.m., Central Time, according to another AP story.
"Vermin". That's an apt description for this criminal. The double murder was not his only transgression--he's also a child rapist.
Agree that the Texas DCJ made the right call. A botched execution at this point would not have been a good thing.