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Texas

Convicted killer of 2 in Fort Worth set to die Wednesday

Associated Press
Published | Updated
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    This undated photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows death row inmate Christopher Wilkins. Wilkins is set for lethal injection Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2017, as the nation's first execution this year. (Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP) (The Associated Press)

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    Foto sin fecha distribuida por el Departamento de Justicia Penal de Texas del condenado a muerte Christopher Wilkins, cuya ejecución fue efectuada el miércoles 11 de enero de 2017. (Departamento de Justicia Penal de Texas vía AP) (The Associated Press)

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    Image 3 of 3

    This undated photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows death row inmate Christopher Wilkins. Wilkins is set for lethal injection Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2017, as the nation's first execution this year. (Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP) (The Associated Press)

HUNTSVILLE, Texas – Lawyers for Texas death row inmate Christopher Wilkins are looking to the U.S. Supreme Court to keep him from becoming the first prisoner executed in the nation this year.

The 48-year-old Wilkins is set for lethal injection Wednesday evening for a double slaying in Fort Worth in 2005. The fatal shootings stemmed from a $20 drug deal in which he thought he was buying a rock of crack cocaine. The rock really was a piece of gravel.

Wilkins described the slayings to jurors at his murder trial in 2008 and said he didn't care if jurors gave him the death penalty.

His lawyers are arguing to the high court that Wilkins had poor legal help at his trial and during earlier appeals. State attorneys argue courts already have rejected similar appeals.