WASHINGTON -- A Louisiana death row inmate whose execution has been postponed five times asked the Supreme Court to prevent the state from setting a new execution date.
Timothy George Baldwin asked the court Friday to prevent Louisiana officials from assigning a new execution date so the court has time to consider his appeal.
Baldwin, 46, was convicted and sentenced to death for the April 4, 1978, murder of 85-year-old Mary James Peters, a former neighbor in West Monroe, La., and godmother to his youngest child.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans refused Sept. 1 to issue a stay while Baldwin appeals to the Supreme Court to review his conviction. The appeals court ordered a new date to be set.
The former itinerant construction worker was sentenced to die in Louisiana's electric chair for beating Mrs. Peters to death with a skillet, telephone and stool.
The woman's small safe, containing certificates of deposits and other securities, was taken.
Baldwin and his companion, Marilyn Hampton, were picked up in El Dorado, Ark., with bank certificates and bonds in Mary Peters name in their possession. His fingerprints were found in Mrs. Peters home.
Baldwin argued that his attorney was ineffective because he did not impress on jurors that a hotel receipt showed he had checked into the White Sands Motel in El Dorado, Ark., the day of the murder. The hotel is 70 miles from West Monroe.
