As reported in this local article, "Texas carried out its third execution of the year Tuesday night, lethally injecting Rick Rhoades for killing two men in their Houston-area home 30 years ago." Here is more:
In an unsuccessful last-ditch effort, his attorneys had hoped to delay the execution to explore whether racial bias during jury selection tainted his trial.
Rhoades, 57, was convicted of killing brothers Charles and Bradley Allen in September 1991, a day after his release on parole from a five-year sentence for car theft and home burglary, according to prison records. When Rhoades was arrested weeks later for allegedly burglarizing a school, he confessed to the murders, court records state.
Less than an hour after the U.S. Supreme Court denied Rhoades' final appeal Tuesday afternoon, he was taken into Texas' death chamber in Huntsville. Two of his friends were to stand witness, according to a prison report, along with two siblings of the slain brothers, the daughter of Bradley Allen and a friend to both of the murdered men.
I speculated in this post, wrongly, that death row inmates might all be able to secure a stay of execution after SCOTUS granted cert in Ramirez to determine religious liberty rights in the Texas execution chamber. A couple of weeks ago, as noted here, another Texas inmate did get an execution stay based on religion claim SCOTUS is considering in Ramirez. But it seems Rhoades was either uninterested or unable to make a Ramirez claim, and his execution went forward as scheduled.
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