By KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX – A state appeals court has halted a hearing into whether a Texas man was wrongly executed because of faulty arson evidence.
The Third Court of Appeals in Austin granted the emergency stay Thursday and ordered state District Judge Charlie Baird not to take any further action.
The order permits Innocence Project lawyers seeking to clear Cameron Todd Willingham's name until Oct. 22 to respond.
Navarro County District Attorney R. Lowell Thompson, whose office convicted Willingham in 1992, sought the stay after Baird declined to recuse himself.
Willingham was executed in 2004 after being convicted of setting fire to his rural house near Corsicana in 1991, killing his three daughters.
Gasoline prices continue rise in Texas, nationally
Gasoline prices have jumped in Texas and nationwide because of the rise in crude oil prices.
The weekly AAA Texas price survey released Thursday found that the average per-gallon price of unleaded regular rose by 4 cents across Texas to $2.67. The national average leaped 7 cents to $2.83.
An auto club statement said retail gasoline prices are climbing because oil prices have gone up. Crude oil that was in the $76-a-barrel range in late September is averaging $82 a barrel now. Also, fall maintenance at many U.S. oil refineries has reduced gasoline production.
The cheapest average gasoline prices in Texas is $2.61 per gallon in Galveston, while the most expensive is an average of $2.75 per gallon in Amarillo. Both are 3-cent increases from last week.
Soldiers reacted at Fort Hood as if in combat
A hearing to sort through evidence against an Army psychiatrist accused of being the gunman in the deadly mass shooting at Fort Hood ended for the day with testimony from a soldier severely wounded during the rampage.
Staff Sgt. Patrick Zeigler used a cane and spoke haltingly Thursday. He told how he took a bullet to the head at a soldier processing center at the Texas Army post Nov. 5 while having routine medical tests.
Zeigler said Thursday that he was shot four times. He says surgeons had to remove 18 percent to 20 percent of his brain.
The gunman identified by witnesses as Maj. Nidal Hasan is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. The hearing that continues Friday is to determine if he should stand trial.