Texas stay held
Gerald Eldridge, 45, was condemned for the fatal shooting of his ex-girlfriend and her daughter nearly 17 years ago in Houston. Attorneys contended he was too mentally ill to receive lethal injection and made those arguments in an appeal to the courts.
U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal in Houston agreed to delay the scheduled punishment for 90 days after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had rejected the appeal Monday.
Rosenthal said Eldridge’s lawyers made a “substantial threshold showing of insanity” and should be given a hearing. The Supreme Court has ruled in previous cases that mentally ill prisoners may be executed if they are aware of why they are facing the punishment.
“Eldridge is entitled to an opportunity to submit evidence and arguments, including expert psychiatric evidence, on the question of insanity,” Rosenthal wrote in a 10-page ruling.
Eldridge received word of the reprieve while he was in a small cell just outside the death chamber in Huntsville. He immediately was taken back to death row at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Polunsky Unit, about 45 miles to the east.
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