A Kaufman County man on death row will not be executed tonight after all for the death of a Garland woman 23 years ago. That's because last night a federal appeals court upheld a ruling, delaying it.
On October 4th, 2000, 80-year-old Bertie Cunningham of Garland wanted to go shopping at the Collin Creek Mall. She never made it there.
Garland Police Detective John Gutherie says Cunningham had stopped at a convenience store and crossed paths with Jedidiah Murphy, who was in Garland that day.
Murphy used a relative's piston to shoot Cunningham in the head, then dumped her body in a creek in Van Zandt County. He was caught after using her credit card to buy scooters, then filling out a warranty card.
A jury in Dallas County convicted Murphy of capital murder and sentenced him to death.
Murphy had alleged in a lawsuit that the drugs he was to be injected with were exposed to extreme heat and smoke during a recent fire, making them unsafe.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office says testing done after the fire on samples of the state’s supplies of pentobarbital, the drug used in executions, showed they “remain potent and sterile,” according to the Associated Press.
Murphy’s lawyers also alleged the criminal justice department is using expired execution drugs, a claim made by seven other death row inmates in a December lawsuit.
No new execution date has been set.
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