TEXAS, USA. DEATH ROW APPEAL DENIED

May 16, 2006: the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals voted 5-4 to lift a stay of execution it issued on May 15 for Derrick S. O'Brien. O'Brien had been scheduled to die May 16; a new execution date was to be set at a hearing in July.
Four of the five judges who voted to lift the stay said in a concurring opinion that O'Brien did not offer evidence that the drugs used by the state could cause a painful death.
O'Brien, 31, was sentenced to death for the 1993 torture slayings of two Houston teenage girls. (Sources: AP, 17/05/2006)