By KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX –
An inmate once on death row in Texas has been freed nine months after his conviction was overturned in the 1985 Thanksgiving bombing deaths of three people.
In a statement Thursday, Michael Roy Toney thanked his friends and family for their support and maintained his innocence. The attorney general's office dropped the charges against him Wednesday, and he was released from a jail in Fort Worth.
His conviction was overturned in December when a court found the lead prosecutor withheld evidence.
The attorney general's office has reopened an investigation into the killings of a teenager, her father and her cousin. But the office says there wasn't enough time to complete it before a Thursday deadline.
The state could refile charges against Toney.
Gas prices fall as Labor Day approaches
Abundant fuel supplies and crude oil prices below $70 per barrel are credited for a 4-cent drop in the per-gallon retail price of regular gasoline in Texas.
The weekly AAA Texas gasoline price survey released Thursday shows regular, unleaded self-serve gasoline retailing for an average of $2.45 per gallon in Texas. Nationally, the average price fell 2 cents to $2.60 per gallon.
Houston has the least expensive gasoline in the survey with regular averaging $2.39 per gallon, a nickel less than last week. El Paso, as usual, has the most expensive gas at $2.54 per gallon, down 4 cents from last week.
DPS in full force through Labor Day weekend
The Texas Department of Public Safety is advising travelers to buckle up and not drink and drive over the long Labor Day weekend.
A new Texas law, which took effect Sept. 1, requires all passengers to wear a seat belt, no matter their age or location in the vehicle.
DPS says all available troopers will be on duty Friday through the holiday Monday watching for drunk drivers, speeders and seat belt violators.
DPS supports the "Drink. Drive. Go to Jail" campaign and is also a participant in nationwide Operation CARE, for Combined Accident Reduction Effort.
DPS, during the 2008 Labor Day holiday weekend, arrested 623 people for driving while intoxicated and issued more than 10,000 speeding citations. Troopers also issued about 2,500 seat belt and child restraint tickets.
Spacewalk under way despite approaching space junk
Two astronauts are out spacewalking even though a large piece of space junk is headed their way.
Danny Olivas and Christer Fuglesang floated outside early Thursday evening to install a new ammonia tank outside the international space station. They got a late start because of minor spacesuit problems.
The old tank of ammonia, part of the space station's cooling system, was removed during Tuesday night's spacewalk.
Late Friday morning, part of an old European rocket is expected to pass within two miles of shuttle Discovery and the space station. That is considered a safe distance. NASA decided that the linked spacecraft will not need to change course. The orbiting debris has an estimated surface area of 200 square feet.