Death in Texas

(Newser) - The former Utah state trooper implicated in a Dallas freeway shooting spree died in a Texas hospital last night after shooting himself during a police standoff, the AP reports. Authorities suspect that Brian Smith, 37, caused at least one of two roadside deaths Monday, but ballistics tests have yet to confirm that bullet casings from his gun match those found at one of the crime scenes. More »

(Newser) - Dallas authorities are comparing bullets to see if an former Utah state trooper who shot himself during a standoff with police early this morning was also responsible for a rush-hour shooting spree that left two people dead yesterday, the Dallas Morning News reports. Brian Smith, also suspected in a pharmacy robbery, remains on life support after attempting suicide. More »

(AP) - A dozen condemned inmates in Texas's "death watch" cells are being executed at a scheduled rate of two a week through November. The executions relieve a logjam created when the US Supreme Court effectively halted lethal injections while deciding whether the method was unconstitutionally inhumane. It ruled the method constitutional, and executions resumed. More »

(Newser) - A Texas death-row inmate who filed an appeal alleging that an affair between the judge and prosecutor compromised his trial has been granted a stay of execution. But, ABC News reports, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals approved Charles Dean Hood's request based not on the affair but because of a problem with jury instructions during his trial for murder and robbery. More »

(Newser) - A condemned Texas inmate has won a hearing to decide whether his lawyers can question the judge and prosecutor at his capital case trial about an alleged affair the two were having while the proceedings were unfolding, ABC News reports. A former county DA filed a sworn statement last year saying the affair was "common knowledge" at the time. More »

(Newser) - A Texas grand jury’s decision to take no action against Joe Horn, who killed two burglars on his front lawn, has focused attention on the state’s “deadly force” laws, the Houston Chronicle reports. Horn’s life was not in danger until he confronted the thieves fleeing his neighbor’s house, but his actions were legally protected by a statute dating from the 1850s. More »

(Newser) - A 7-year-old Texas boy was apparently mauled to death yesterday by two pit bulls, writes the Abilene Reporter. Police responding to a 911 call discovered Tanner Joshua Monk’s body on the side of a road, with two dogs nearby. The deputies were forced to kill the dogs, which belonged to a neighbor of Monk’s family, when the animals attacked them. More »

(Newser) - A Texas appellate court threw out a $32 million verdict against Merck today, citing a lack of evidence that Vioxx contributed to a man’s fatal heart attack. Lionel Garza was taking the painkiller when he died in 2001 at age 71, but was also a smoker with high blood pressure and high cholesterol, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Garza case was decided by verdict in 2006, and was excluded from a recent $4.85 billion settlement for