A Texas man is to be executed for the 1997 murder of a woman who was jogging in her Houston neighborhood, one of two such executions scheduled in the United States on Wednesday.
Arthur Lee Burton, 54, is to be put to death by lethal injection at 6:00 pm Central Time (2300 GMT) at the state penitentiary in Huntsville.
Separately, the western state of Utah is scheduled to carry out an execution a few hours later, its first in 14 years.
Taberon Honie, 48, is to be put to death shortly after midnight Mountain Time (0600 GMT Thursday) for the 1998 murder and sexual assault of his ex-girlfriend’s mother.
Honie is to be executed by lethal injection at the Utah State Correctional Facility in Salt Lake City.
Utah’s last execution was carried out by firing squad in 2010.
Burton, the death row inmate in Texas, was convicted of the July 1997 murder of Nancy Adleman, a mother of three who was attacked while out jogging. Adleman was strangled with her own shoelaces.
Burton’s lawyers have appealed to the Supreme Court to stay his execution, arguing that he should be constitutionally exempt from being put to death because he is intellectually disabled.
“This Court’s intervention is urgently needed to prevent the imminent execution of Mr Burton, who the unrebutted evidence strongly indicates is intellectually disabled,” they said.
Texas has carried out two executions since January and there have been 10 in the United States this year so far.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 US states, while six others (Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee) have moratoriums in place.
