Execution of Texas inmate set to proceed after Supreme Court grants request to overturn stay

By JUAN A. LOZANO
Associated Press

HOUSTON (AP) — The execution of a Texas inmate condemned for fatally shooting an 80-year-old woman was set to proceed after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s stay. Jedidiah Murphy’s execution is set to take place Tuesday evening at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was sentenced to death for the 2000 killing of Bertie Lee Cunningham during a carjacking. The U.S. Supreme Court late Tuesday afternoon granted an appeal from the state attorney general’s office asking to overturn an execution stay granted last week by a federal judge and upheld Monday by a federal appeals court. The high court also rejected another stay request Tuesday night over the safety of Texas execution drugs.