[Deathpenalty] death penalty news------TEXAS

[Rick Halperin]

June 18



TEXAS----state misses execution deadline; Hood is spared

Texas halts inmate's execution for 1989 double slaying


Texas halted the scheduled execution of a former topless club bouncer for
a double slaying almost 20 years ago as time ran out.

Prison officials were faced with a midnight CDT deadline Tuesday to
administer the lethal drugs to Charles Dean Hood but feared they could not
follow the proper procedures in time after lengthy appeals delayed the
scheduled punishment.

Hood would have been the 2nd Texas prisoner executed in as many weeks.

Hood was arrested in his native Indiana the day after the 1989 slayings of
Ronald Williamson and Tracie Lynn Wallace at Williamson's home in the
Dallas suburb of Plano.

(source: Associated Press)