Texas was set Wednesday to execute a man who stabbed to death an elderly mother and daughter in their home, robbing them of a car and a credit card.
Billy Crutsinger, 64, who was scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection at 6 pm local time (2300 GMT), would be the 14th person to be executed in the United States this year, and the fifth in Texas.
He was sentenced to death in 2003 for the murder of an 89-year-old woman and her 71-year-old daughter, who had hired him to do work in their house in Fort Worth, Texas.
He stole a credit card belonging to the younger woman and escaped in their car after stabbing them to death.
Investigators quickly tracked Crutsinger down when he used the credit card to buy drinks at a bar in Galveston, Texas.
He confessed and agreed to have a DNA sample taken.
During his trial, Crutsinger's lawyers said he was an alcoholic who had had trouble since the deaths of three of his children and other family members, and that he would become violent while under the influence of alcohol.
His appeals to have the death sentence commuted have been rejected.
His lawyers filed a last-ditch appeal with the US Supreme Court lask week, seeking to block the execution on grounds that his initial lawyer was incompetent.
