By KERA News Room
Dallas/Fort Worth, TX –
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to stop the scheduled execution Tuesday night of convicted killer Milton Mathis for a double murder in Houston more than 12 years ago. Justices Tuesday rejected an appeal that argued Mathis was mentally impaired and that federal courts never had the opportunity to properly consider his impairment claims. The 32-year-old Mathis was condemned for the fatal shootings of 24-year-old Travis Brown and 31-year-old Daniel Hibbard at a Houston crack house. A 15-year-old girl also was shot and paralyzed. The execution was scheduled for after 6 pm.
Victims' Families Agree to Bus Crash Settlement
Most of the defendants sued by families of victims who died in a 2008 Texas bus crash have agreed to out-of-court settlements. Those settlements with 11 companies and individuals were noted in a court order signed by the presiding judge earlier this month. Among the settling parties are the operator of the charter bus company, the company that inspected the bus before the trip and the firm that retreaded the blown-out tire that caused the crash. The financial terms were not revealed. Six defendants remain in the litigation that accuses multiple parties of negligence. Fifty-five members of Houston's Vietnamese Catholic community were on their way to a religious retreat in Missouri when their bus plunged over a highway bridge near Sherman about 60 miles north of Dallas. Seventeen people died.
ICE Arrests 140 In North Texas, Oklahoma
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement - ICE - arrested 140 criminal aliens in North Texas & Oklahoma last month as part of a nationwide week long operation. The so-called Cross Check enforcement netted a total of more than 2,400 convicted criminal aliens & immigration fugitives in all 50 states. ICE released the results Tuesday. ICE says all those taken into custody had prior convictions for crimes such as: armed robbery, drug trafficking, child abuse, sexual crimes against minors, aggravated assault, theft, forgery and DUI. A fifth of those in custody were immigration fugitives-convicted criminal aliens with outstanding orders of deportation who had failed to leave the country. The Cross Check operation - the largest of its kind - began 2 years ago, has resulted 2,064 arrests, and involved more than 500 ICE agents and officers.