Execution set for Thursday stopped by court order
By MICHAEL GRACZYK
Associated Press Writer
HUNTSVILLE, Texas — The scheduled Thursday night execution of a Texas prisoner for his part in the slaying of two workers during a robbery was stopped after the Dallas County district attorney’s office asked that the execution order be withdrawn.
Joseph Lave, 42, would have been the 25th inmate given lethal injection in Texas, the nation’s busiest death penalty state.
In an order signed late Wednesday, a state district judge in Dallas agreed with the request from District Attorney Craig Watkins, Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said Thursday.
Lave was convicted of being one of three robbers involved in the beating and slashing deaths of Justin Marquart and Frederick Banzaf, both 18, on the night before Thanksgiving in 1992.
