News Scan

Killer of Five Faces Execution Thursday:   A Texas man convicted of the 2002 murders of his wife,  his 7-year-old and 9-month-old daughters, his sister in law and father in law, is scheduled for execution by lethal injection Thursday.  Brian Bingamon of the Austin Chronicle reports that the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Abel Ochoa’s last appeal in October of 2019.  Unless a lower court orders a stay or the state grants clemency, his execution will be carried out.  At trial Ochoa claimed that he was suffering from a crack-cocaine induced delirium when he committed the murders, which included his reloading his gun, chasing down his 7-year-old daughter and shooting her four times.  The jury took 10 minutes to unanimously find him guilty.  On direct appeal and habeas corpus Ochoa claimed that his trial attorney was incompetent, the jury was biased, and that his alleged sexual abuse as a child and possible mental illness mitigated his responsibility for the murders.

Update:  Ochoa was pronounced dead at 6:48 p.m Thursday.