The US Supreme Court today rejected one request by drug kingpin JuanRaul Garza to stay his execution, acting less than 24 hours before heis scheduled to follow Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh to theFederal death chamber.
But the high court took no action on a second request by Garza for a stay.
Garza (44) is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection at theUS Penitentiary in Terre Haute in Indiana tomorrow. It would be thesecond federal execution since 1963 following McVeigh's death by eight days.
Lawyers for Garza, who was born in Mexico, said in the Supreme Courtappeal the sentencing jury should have been instructed that theonly alternative to a death sentence was life in prison withoutpossible parole.
The high court rejected that appeal in a brief order without anycomment or dissent. The action does not amount to a formal ruling.
In a second appeal to the high court Garza said his execution wouldviolate the charter of the Organisation of American States, to whichthe United States is a signatory.
The Supreme Court has yet to act on that appeal and the relatedrequest for a stay.
Garza was convicted in federal court in Texas of one murder and ofordering two other deaths in 1990 and 1991 while running a majormarijuana smuggling operation. Garza, who is an American citizen, hasadmitted the drug-related killings.
Garza also has a pending request with President Bush tocommute his sentence to life in prison without a chance for parole.