Texas unlikely to halt executions

DALLAS, Oct. 16 (UPI) -- Death penalty foes accuse Texas officials of arrogance for not declaring a moratorium on lethal injection while the U.S. Supreme Court reviews the practice.

"It's political arrogance," Steve Hall, project director of StandDown Texas, which is seeking a moratorium, told The Dallas Morning News. "It's a political culture that 'they can't tell me what to do.'"

While Oklahoma and Alabama adopted a moratorium, a judge in Tyler, Texas, set a November execution date for an inmate just days after the Supreme Court announced its review and estimated it would not rule until 2008, the Morning News reported Tuesday.

Proponents of the death penalty in Texas say they couldn't stop executions even if they wanted to because that authority rests with the state Legislature, which is adjourned until 2009, the News reported.