Attorneys for a former San Antonio rap musician are looking to federal appeals courts to spare him from a lethal injection for an attack and robbery more than 15 years ago that left a 33-year-old recording studio owner dead.
Ray Jasper faces lethal injection Wednesday evening in Huntsville for the November 1998 stabbing death of David Alejandro.
The 33-year-old inmate acknowledges he cut Alejandro's throat to steal equipment from the victim's San Antonio studio, but he insists a partner was responsible for Alejandro's fatal stab wounds. Two men with Jasper during the attack are serving life in prison.
Jasper's lawyers argue to the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that a prospective juror at his San Antonio trial in 2000 was excluded improperly on racial grounds.
