Execution Stay For Member Of Texas Seven

(Huntsville, TX) — A Texas death row prisoner who was set to be executed on Thursday evening is still alive today.

The U.S. Supreme Court stayed Patrick Murphy’s execution two hours before its scheduled time. The prison system was unable to provide Murphy with a Buddhist spiritual adviser as he’d requested, so his attorneys claimed religious discrimination.

Murphy was sentenced to die for participating in an armed robbery in which Irving Police Officer Aubrey Hawkins was murdered in 2000. He was one of seven prison escapees on a crime spree.