Clemency Denied To Texas Killer

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles refused to grant clemency Monday to a mentally ill condemned killer facing execution later this week.

James Colburn doesn't deny killing the 55-year-old woman as she resisted a rape attempt at his apartment, but his lawyers contend he should be spared because he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia.

Colburn, 43, set to die Wednesday evening, was turned down by the parole board in a 16-1 vote with one abstention.

Colburn's lawyer, James Rytting, acknowledged Monday that he didn't expect the panel to rule in Colburn's favor.

"At some point, we do hope when the bodies mount high enough, people's attitudes will change," Rytting said.

Colburn won a last-minute reprieve in November from the U.S. Supreme Court, which stopped his scheduled lethal injection one minute before he could have been taken to the death chamber in Huntsville.

The high court in January then refused to take up the issue of whether prisoners like Colburn are too mentally ill to be executed, clearing the way for authorities in Texas to reschedule Colburn's death.

The Supreme Court last year halted the execution of the mentally retarded as unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment, but the justices so far have refused blanket protection from the death penalty for people with mental illness.

Colburn, whose criminal past includes convictions for arson and robbery, was convicted of killing Peggy Murphy, 55, on June 26, 1994.

By Michael Graczyk