HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) – The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has turned down a clemency petition from a Dallas man set to die this week for fatally shooting his two young daughters nearly 15 years ago.
Board spokesman Raymond Estrada says the board voted 7-0 Monday, refusing to recommend 60-year-old John David Battaglia’s death sentence be commuted to life in prison and denying his request for a reprieve from his scheduled Wednesday evening execution in Huntsville.
Battaglia was convicted and condemned for the May 2001 slayings of his daughters, 9-year-old Faith and 6-year-old Liberty, at his Dallas apartment The girls’ mother, Battaglia’s ex-wife, was on the phone with him and heard the gunshots and cry of the older daughter.
Battaglia still has appeals in the federal courts seeking to block his punishment.
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