The Santa Fe Reporter this morning has a story about Karl Chamberlain -- a New Mexico man awaiting execution in Texas for the 1991 rape and murder of a 30-year-old Dallas woman. According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Web site, the 37-year-old Chamberlain is currently the only prisoner on Death Row with a scheduled execution date: February 21. As for the details of Chamberlain's crime, he lived in the same Dallas apartment complex as the victim, went to her apartment "under the pretense of borrowing sugar," then returned "minutes later with duct tape and a rifle" before assaulting and murdering the woman.
Noted in the piece: The U.S. Supreme Court is currently weighing the constitutionality of the executions by lethal injection, and attorneys across the country are filing stays of executions for their clients as they await the court's ruling. Only, no one's filed a stay on Chamberlain's behalf -- though, notes the Reporter story: "The Dallas County District Attorney’s Office tells SFR via e-mail that it will withdraw the execution date if the Supreme Court doesn’t rule before Feb. 21. However, the prosecutor’s promise contravenes Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who has indicated publicly that the state will not halt executions while the Supreme Court deliberates." --Robert Wilonsky
