By MICHAEL GRACZYK
Associated Press Writer
HOUSTON- A Texas appeals court on Monday postponed the execution of a gang member who challenged whether the state’s method of lethal injection is unconstitutionally cruel.
Derrick Sean O’Brien, 31, was condemned for the 1993 slayings of two teenage girls and had been scheduled to die Tuesday, until the Court of Criminal Appeals issued a reprieve.
Jay Burnett, one of O’Brien’s lawyers, said it was not certain how long the reprieve would last.
The U.S. Supreme Court last month heard arguments in a similar Florida case that questioned whether inmates can file last-minute civil rights challenges to the use of lethal injection chemicals. Death-penalty critics have argued that a painkilling drug could wear off before the lethal drugs take effect.
The justices are expected to issue a decision before July.
The high court’s decision to hear the Florida case renewed legal efforts around the country on behalf of death-row prisoners. Executions have also been blocked in California, Delaware, Maryland and Missouri.
O’Brien was one of six gang members convicted of the June 24, 1993, slayings of Jennifer Ertman, 14, and her friend, Elizabeth Pena, 16.
The two girls took a shortcut while trying to get home from a friend’s house and stumbled onto a group of teenagers drinking beer after initiating a new member into their gang. Evidence showed the girls were gang raped for more than an hour, then were kicked and beaten before being strangled.