Mississippi Execution To Go On
A federal appeals court has vacated an order blocking Wednesday’s execution of Mississippi death row inmate Edwin Hart Turner.
Mississippi Department of Corrections officials say they are planning to move forward with the execution at 6 p.m.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves in Jackson blocked the execution until Feb. 20. Attorney General Jim Hood filed an appeal Tuesday with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.
The appeals court ruled in Hood’s favor and lifted the stay.
Turner’s lawyer, James Craig, had persuaded Reeves to temporarily block the execution after arguing that a Mississippi Department of Corrections policy prevented Turner from getting tests that could prove he was mentally ill when he killed two men during robberies in 1995.
