By Corrie MacLaggan and Terry Baynes
Sept 25 (Reuters) - Texas executed a man on Tuesday who had
received three stays of execution from the U.S. Supreme Court
because of questions about how forcefully his lawyers defended
him.
Cleve Foster, 48, was convicted with an accomplice in the
2002 murder and rape of Nyanuer "Mary" Pal, whose naked body was
found in a ditch, according to a report by the Texas attorney
general's office.
Foster had asked the U.S. high court for a fourth stay of
execution, but it was denied on Tuesday. He was pronounced dead
at 6:43 p.m. local time at the state penitentiary in Huntsville,
Texas criminal justice spokesman Jason Clark said.
The U.S. Supreme Court a year ago granted a temporary stay
of execution just 2-1/2 hours before Foster was to be put to
death by injection. It was the third stay from the high court
for Foster, who also was granted delays in January and April
2011.
Tuesday's request for a fourth stay was referred by Justice
Antonin Scalia to the full court, but just three of the nine
justices -- Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg
-- said they would favor another stay.
Foster's accomplice in the murder, Shelton Ward, died of
brain cancer on death row in 2010. Foster maintained in his
trial that Ward acted alone and that contact between him and the
victim was consensual.
The two men and Pal were regulars at Fat Albert's bar in
Fort Worth when, the night before Valentine's Day in 2002,
bartenders said Pal walked out with them, according to the
report. Pal left in her car and the men followed closely behind
in Foster's truck.
Eight hours later, Pal's body was found with a gunshot wound
to the head and wadded-up duct tape nearby, according to the
report.
Foster is the 30th person executed in the United States this
year and the ninth in Texas.
In his last statement, Foster sent his love to his family
and friends. "I love you, I pray one day we will all meet in
heaven...," Foster said. "Ready to go home to meet my maker."
Texas has executed more than four times as many people as
any other state since the death penalty was reinstated in the
United States in 1976, according to the Death Penalty
Information Center.
Follow us on Twitter @ReutersLegal | Like us on Facebook