Texas to execute man for 1989 murders of twin sisters

A Texas man is to be put to death by lethal injection on Tuesday for the murders of teenage twin sisters, the sixth death row inmate to be executed in the United States in the past 12 days.

Garcia White, 61, a former high school football star, was convicted in 1996 of stabbing Annette and Bernette Edwards to death in December 1989.

According to court and prison records, White killed the mother, Bonita Edwards, of the 16-year-old girls following an argument at their Houston home and then murdered the two sisters.

White was not tried for the death of Bonita Edwards or for two other murders he confessed to committing, one in 1989 and another in 1995.

White's lawyers have filed a last-minute request for a stay of execution with the US Supreme Court, arguing that he is intellectually disabled and therefore not eligible for the death penalty.

Texas has carried out four executions this year at the state penitentiary in Huntsville and another inmate, Robert Roberson, 57, is scheduled to be put to death on October 17 despite questions about his guilt.

Lawmakers in Texas, medical experts and the best-selling novelist John Grisham are among those seeking to halt the execution of Roberson, who was convicted of the 2002 death of his two-year-old daughter Nikki.

Roberson, who is autistic, took the girl to a hospital with severe head trauma and the child died the next day.

Roberson's lawyers and advocates have argued that the diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome, made at the hospital where the child died, was erroneous.

In a letter to Texas officials, 34 doctors said the cause of death was in fact severe pneumonia, aggravated by the little girl's being prescribed the wrong medication.

Roberson's autism, which was not diagnosed until 2018, was misconstrued at the time as showing indifference to the death of the toddler and this perception weighed heavily in his conviction, according to his lawyers.

Four executions were carried out in the United States last week and one the week before, bringing the total this year to 18.

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while six others -- Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee -- have moratoriums in place.

© Agence France-Presse