Court declines to block Texas’ execution of Billy Jack Crutsinger

The Supreme Court this evening denied the application for a stay of execution and the petition for a writ of certiorari filed by Billy Jack Crutsinger. Texas executed Crutsinger, who was sentenced to death for the 2003 murders of Pearl Magouirk and her daughter, Patricia Syren, by lethal injection tonight just after 6:00 p.m. CT.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a statement regarding the court’s decision not to review the lower courts’ refusal to reopen Crutsinger’s petition for post-conviction relief. Explaining that Crutsinger had not shown that he was entitled to have his petition reopened, Sotomayor indicated that she agreed with the decision to deny review. However, she noted that the “potential tension” between the Supreme Court’s precedent and the lower court’s approach to this issue might require the Supreme Court’s intervention in a different case.