Supreme Court blocks Thursday night Texas execution

Huntsville (WBAP/KLIF) – The U.S. Supreme Court issued a reprieve Thursday night preventing the execution of Patrick Murphy. Murphy is the next-to-last surviving member of the Texas 7 prison escapees who murdered an Irving Police officer on Christmas eve, 2000. The court prevented the scheduled lethal injection of Murphy to give his attorneys time to argue that he was unconstitutionally being prevented from having a Buddhist priest with him in the death chamber as he was being put to death. Murphy has claimed in the past he shouldn’t be executed for the killing of officer Aubrey Hawkins because he was only the getaway driver, and didn’t shoot anyone.