AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The outbreak of the novel coronavirus prompted the top Texas appeals court on Monday to stay for 60 days the scheduled execution of a man condemned for killing his family.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected all grounds of John William Hummel’s appeal but said it would postpone the scheduled Wednesday execution “in light of the current health crisis and the enormous resources needed to address the execution.”
Hummel, 44, was convicted in 2011 of capital murder in the December 2009 fatal stabbing of his pregnant wife, Joy Hummel, 45, and fatal bludgeoning of his father-in-law, Clyde Bedford, 57, with a baseball bat.
Evidence showed he also used the bat to beat to death Jodi Hummel, his 5-year-old daughter, before he torched their home in Kennedale, a Fort Worth suburb. However, he was only convicted of capital murder in the deaths of his wife and father-in-law.
Prosecutors say he killed his family so he could woo a woman he had met at a convenience store.
