#Texas death row inmate to be first execution since coronavirus delay
“#Texas death row inmate to be first execution since coronavirus delay”
July 8, 2020 | 2:32pm
Billy Joe Wardlow
Texas Department of Criminal Justice
Billy Joe Wardlow, 45, killed Carl Cole, 82, during a June 1993 robbery at his home in Cason, about 130 miles east of Dallas in the East Texas Pineywoods, near the Louisiana and Arkansas borders.
Wardlow’s attorneys, joined by neuroscientists, have argued that at the time of the crime, Wardlow’s 18-year-old brain wasn’t fully developed.
“The science really supports precluding the death penalty for anyone under 21 because brain development is still happening,” said attorney Richard Burr.
In a letter to the parole board, Wardlow asked for his execution to be delayed for 330 days, but it was denied Monday in a 6-1 vote, The Texas Tribune reported.
“I came to death row a scared boy who made poor choices; I will leave death row a man that others admire because I weathered the storms of life with the help of people that loved me,” he wrote. “We should all be so fortunate.”
On Monday, the parole board denied the request in a 6-1 vote.
But prosecutors argued that “Wardlow senselessly executed elderly Carl Cole to steal his truck, something that could have been taken without violence because the keys were in it,” according to a petition filed with the Supreme Court by the Texas attorney general’s office.
He is set to be put to death at 6 p.m. at the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville.
If the execution is carried out as planned, it would be the first in Texas since Feb. 6.
Missouri was the first state in the U.S. to carry out an execution following coronavirus shutdowns, on May 19. No other executions have taken place in the US since then.
Wardlow was initially scheduled to be executed on April 29, but that date was moved to July 8 at the request of Morris County District Attorney Steve Cowan, who cited the statewide disaster declaration over the virus.
Texas has seen a surge in coronavirus cases in recent weeks.
With Post wires
If you want to read more News articles, you can visit our General category.
if you want to watch Movies or Tv Shows go to Dizi.BuradaBiliyorum.Com for forums sites go to Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com
