Death Row Inmates To Get New Execution Dates

HOUSTON — Prosecutors moved quickly yesterday to set new execution dates for three death-row inmates, hours after the Supreme Court lifted a reprieve it granted last fall so it could consider the constitutionality of lethal injection.

The court blocked the executions of Thomas Arthur of Alabama, Earl Wesley Berry of Mississippi, and Carlton Turner of Texas last fall while it considered a challenge to Kentucky's lethal injection procedures.

The high court ruled 7–2 last week that the procedures are not cruel, and the justices' last-minute orders temporarily sparing the three inmates automatically expired when the justices denied their appeals yesterday.

A Dallas County assistant district attorney who handles capital cases, Lisa Smith, said yesterday that the execution of Turner, who was convicted of killing his parents, likely will be set for summer. "It's not going to be within 30 days although technically we could," she said.

The Mississippi attorney general, Jim Hood, asked the state Supreme Court yesterday to set a May 5 execution date for Berry.

"On a procedural matter if things go as they should, as the law says, then this one is over," Mr. Hood said. "But in a death penalty case, never say never."

Attorney General Troy King of Alabama said the court's ruling was expected and that his office immediately requested a new execution date for Arthur.

"It's just a shame that Tommy Arthur continues to benefit from delays that have kept him on death row for far, far too long," Mr. King said.

Several other death row inmates also lost their appeals yesterday, but they had not been facing imminent execution.

They included Juan Velazquez in Arizona; Samuel Crowe and Joseph Williams in Georgia; Michael Taylor in Missouri; Kenneth Biros, Richard Cooey, and James Frazier in Ohio, and Lester Bower in Texas.

It is unclear whether they can mount new appeals to stop their executions.

The court's decision last week left the door open to challenging lethal injection procedures in other states where problems with administering the drugs are well documented.