Man facing death in couple’s fatal stabbing gets reprieve

By JUAN A. LOZANO
Associated Press

HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas inmate who was scheduled to be the first to be executed by the state this year received a reprieve from an appeals court. Michael Dean Gonzales had been set to receive a lethal injection Tuesday evening for fatally stabbing an elderly couple during a burglary of their West Texas home nearly 30 years ago. But the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Thursday granted a request by his attorneys to stay his execution. The appeals court ordered that Gonzales’ case be sent back to the trial judge in Odessa to review claims he is intellectually disabled and thus cannot constitutionally be executed and whether prosecutors withheld evidence in the case. A prosecutor with the Texas Attorney General’s Office says various pieces of evidence show he’s guilty.