A federal appeals court is agreeing with a lower federal judge who ruled a Texas man on death row for the fatal shooting of his ex-girlfriend and her daughter 23 years ago in Houston has been faking mental illness to avoid execution.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling late Monday moves 52-year-old Gerald Eldridge a step closer to execution for the January 1993 slayings of his former girlfriend, 28-year-old Cynthia Bogany, and her 6-year-old daughter, Chirissa.
Also shot and wounded were Eldridge's then-7-year-old son with Bogany and the woman's boyfriend at the time.
Eldridge in 2009 was less than two hours from his scheduled lethal injection in Huntsville when a federal judge halted the punishment. His lawyers had argued Eldridge was too mentally ill to be executed.
