Texas Appeals Court Stops Scheduled Tuesday Execution

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A divided Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has stopped this week's scheduled execution of 37-year-old Tilon Carter for the slaying of an 89-year-old man during a robbery at his Fort Worth home.

Carter was set for lethal injection Tuesday evening for the 2004 killing of James Tomlin.

Attorneys for Carter asked the court last week to stop the punishment, arguing a medical examiner's trial testimony regarding Tomlin's cause of death was false and misleading and that Carter's trial lawyers were deficient. They also presented statements from three forensic pathologists who contend Tarrant County prosecutors' theory that Tomlin's death was intentional and worthy of a capital murder charge wasn't supported by the findings at the autopsy.

Three of the court's nine judges voted against the request for a reprieve.