Texas executes death row inmate after 27 years in prison
In 1997, a man confesses to the murder of a 48-year-old jogger in Texas. Nearly three decades later, the state kills him with the death penalty. Until the end, his lawyers try to halt the execution before the Supreme Court.
A man was executed in the U.S. state of Texas for the murder of a jogger over 27 years ago. Arthur Lee Burton was pronounced dead on Wednesday evening (local time) after receiving a lethal injection at the prison in Huntsville. Just hours earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an application by his lawyers to halt the execution.
In July 1997, a mother of three was brutally beaten and strangled with her own shoelace in a wooded area near Houston, according to police. Court records show that Burton confessed to killing the 48-year-old. He said she asked him why he was doing it and that he didn't have to. However, he later recanted his confession and was still sentenced to death for murder and attempted rape of the jogger in 1998. A Texas appeals court overturned the verdict two years later, but he received the death penalty again in 2002.
Court rejects claim of mental impairment
Burton's lawyers tried to stop his execution by arguing that he scored poorly on intelligence tests, indicating significant mental impairment. They claimed that the death penalty should not apply to their client. However, prosecutors said that Burton had not previously raised an intellectual impairment argument and only brought it up eight days before his scheduled execution.
In 2002, the Supreme Court banned the execution of people with intellectual disabilities. However, the Supreme Court also allowed U.S. states to have discretion in defining impairments on a case-by-case basis.
The execution of Arthur Lee Burton was a result of his conviction for the 1997 crime of murdering a jogger in Texas. Despite his lawyers arguing for mental impairment, the Supreme Court rejected their claim due to the late filing of the argument.
