HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A condemned killer won a reprieve about two hours before his scheduled execution Tuesday for the fatal shooting of a Houston businessman during a botched burglary 12 years ago.
The execution of Kenneth Wayne Morris, 32, a ninth-grade dropout with a history of theft and burglary, was stopped by order of a federal appeals court, based on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year that barred execution of mentally retarded people.
In a last-ditch appeal, Morris' lawyers argued their client was retarded, even though he had never been given an IQ test.