A death row inmate in Texas is set to be executed on Wednesday for the killing of a woman in Houston in 1997. Should it effectively be conducted, Arthur Lee Burton would become the third person to be executed in the state so far this year, with four more scheduled throughout 2024.
Burton was first sentenced to death in 1998 for the killing of Nancy Adleman. Police discovered her body in a wooded area near a jogging trail along the bayou. She was strangled with her own shoelace and her body beaten. Her shorts and underwear were found away from her, The Texas Tribune recounted.
The man initially denied killing Adleman but he later confessed, although he has since argued that the statement was obtained under coercion. Burton has gone through several appeals, all rejected, with his latest before the Supreme Court still pending on Wednesday morning. His lawyers have argued that he is intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for the death penalty.
His lawyers recently presented what they claim is new evidence of the disability, including a diagnosis from a clinical psychologist saying that Burton meets the criteria for "mild intellectual disability," as well as supporting data. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that executing people with intellectual disabilities constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment."
However, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals have rejected Burton claim, saying that "qualitative and quantitative evidence are not consistent with the presence of intellectual disability." They added that the appeal wasn't timely and it should have been raised years ago. A Texas appeals court also rejected the claim.
Burton's lawyers have appealed the decision before the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking a second look and a stay of his execution. If granted, it would be the second time in less than a month when such a decision is made on the day of a scheduled execution.
On July 16, the Supreme Court granted a stay in the execution of Ruben Gutiérrez for the 1998 murder of an 85-year-old woman in Brownsville in 1998.
The decision was published just minutes before the hour set for the execution. It determined to grant the suspension "pending the disposition of the petition for a writ of certiorari," legal language to refer to a request for a higher court to review the case after it was tried in a lower court.
"Should the petition for a writ of certiorari be denied, this stay shall terminate automatically. In the event the petition for a writ of certiorari is granted, the stay shall terminate upon the sending down of the judgement of this Court," the document added.
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