US Supreme Court won't lift Okla. execution stay
OKLAHOMA CITY—The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a stay of execution for a convicted Oklahoma killer who says he is insane and ineligible for the death penalty.
A federal court ordered the stay Wednesday and gave Garry Allen's attorneys 15 days to appeal. An appeals court approved that ruling Thursday. Oklahoma's attorney general referred the case to the nation's highest court, which upheld the stay Friday.
Allen had been scheduled for execution Thursday night.
Allen pleaded guilty to capital murder in the fatal shooting of 24-year-old Gail Titsworth in November 1986. A responding police officer subsequently shot him in the head. Allen's attorneys say he had a history of mental illness before the shooting and that the gunshot injury caused more impairment.
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