Man Convicted Of Double Murder Faces Execution In Texas

Washington, EtatsUnis, Sept 28 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Sep, 2021 ) :The US state of Texas plans to execute on Tuesday a death row inmate who killed two brothers during a robbery at their Houston home three decades ago.

Unless the US Supreme Court grants him a last-minute reprieve, Rick Rhoades, 57, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection in the evening at Huntsville Penitentiary.

He had already served several stints in prison for burglary when, on September 13, 1991, he entered a Houston home belonging to a man named Charles Allen, whose brother Bradley was staying with him at the time.

Authorities say Rhoades killed the two brothers in their sleep, then stole money from them. He was not arrested until a month later, while robbing a school.

While in custody he confessed to the double murder, but claimed that it had happened during a fight with Charles Allen outside the house.

In 1992, he was sentenced to death after a trial in Harris County.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Harris County has carried out 129 executions since the 1970s, more than any other county in the United States.

Now his lawyers are trying to keep his name from being added to that list by challenging the composition of the jury that convicted him, saying that Blacks were deliberately excluded from it, which if true would invalidate the sentence.

They sued to obtain copies of questionnaires filled out by potential jurors 30 years ago but were unsuccessful, and on Monday turned to the Supreme Court, which will have to say if it will delay the execution to examine the case.

If it allows the execution to go ahead, Rhoades will be the sixth death row inmate executed since the beginning of the year in the United States, where the death penalty has been in sharp decline for several years.