A Texas judge has halted the execution of an inmate convicted of stabbing a corrections officer to death more than 15 years ago.
State District Judge Bert Richardson issued the reprieve just hours before 35-year-old Robert Pruett could have been taken to the Texas death chamber for lethal injection Tuesday evening.
Richardson is Pruett's trial judge.
The judge blocked the punishment after Pruett's attorneys asked for DNA testing on the piece of metal used to kill 37-year-old Daniel Nagle in 1999 at a South Texas prison.
Copyright AP - Associated Press
