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Texas Set to Execute Charles Victor Thompson After Last-Minute Appeals Rejected

His attorneys press a claim that flawed medical care, not the shooting, caused one victim’s death, with a Supreme Court petition pending.

Overview

  • The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied a stay and the parole board rejected commutation, leaving a Wednesday evening execution in Huntsville as scheduled.
  • A filing before the U.S. Supreme Court argues a failed intubation caused Dennise Hayslip’s death, supported by a doctor’s new affidavit recasting prior testimony.
  • Prosecutors say jurors already rejected the medical-care theory and contend state law holds Thompson responsible because the death would not have occurred but for the shooting.
  • Thompson was convicted of killing Darren Cain at the scene and shooting Hayslip, who died a week later, in an April 1998 attack at her Harris County apartment.
  • His initial death sentence was vacated in 2001 over an unconstitutional undercover operation, a 2005 resentencing restored the penalty, and he briefly escaped jail before capture; Hayslip’s family says they will witness the execution, the first in the U.S. this year.