HOUSTON – A condemned Texas inmate set to die next week for killing four men in North Texas more than 30 years ago has received a reprieve from the U.S. Supreme Court.
In a brief order Thursday, the high court indefinitely put off the lethal injection of 67-year-old Lester Bower Jr.
The justices gave no reason for the ruling, saying only that the reprieve would be lifted if they deny or act on his appeals.
Bower is among the longest-serving Texas death row inmates. He had been scheduled for execution Tuesday.
He was convicted of fatally shooting four men in 1983 at an airplane hangar on a Grayson County ranch about 60 miles north of Dallas.
The victims included a county sheriff's deputy and a former Sherman police officer.
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