(June 11, 2007)—Women’s death row inmate Cathy Lynn Henderson, 50, won a reprieve from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Monday that will block her execution Wednesday for the murder of a three-month-old boy for whom she was caring.
The baby’s body was buried in Central Texas.
Henderson was sentenced to die for the murder of Brandon Baugh, a slaying that in early 1994 made her one of the most hated women in Texas.
Sister Helen Prejean of ``Dead Man Walking'' fame is championing Henderson's defense.
The anti-death penalty activist insists Brandon died in an accidental fall and that Henderson's decision to bury him in Central Texas and flee was made in panic, not cold blood.
She and her supporters had argued that new engineering data interpreting Brandon's skull fracture could better support Henderson's contention the child's death was an accident and her life should be spared.
The state's highest criminal court agreed and voted to send the case back to the trial court.
Henderson's lethal injection, initially scheduled for April, was reset for June 13 after lawyers obtained for her by Prejean won a delay.
Henderson would have been the fourth woman executed in the nation's busiest capital punishment state, where 393 prisoners have been given lethal injection since 1982.
Click Here For Texas Department Of Criminal Justice Web Site
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