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DNA to be retested during Texas killer's stay of execution

McGinn, shown here in 1993, was convicted of raping and killing his stepdaughter

June 2, 2000
Web posted at: 2:35 p.m. EST (1835 GMT)

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (CNN) -- A Texas death row inmate convicted of the 1993 rape and ax killing of his 12-year-old stepdaughter was granted a 30-day reprieve minutes before his scheduled execution Thursday -- the first ever granted during the governorship of George W. Bush.

Bush announced the stay while campaigning for president in California after the Supreme Court and a federal appeals court rejected Ricky McGinn's 11th-hour motion for a reprieve.

State Sen. Rodney Ellis, the Senate president pro tempore who is acting governor while Bush and the lieutenant governor are out of the state, followed Bush's recommendation.

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The stay was announced just moments before McGinn was to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. (7 p.m. EDT) Thursday at the Walls Unit at the state correctional facility in Huntsville.

"I have recommended and Senator Ellis has accepted my recommendation to grant a 30-day reprieve in the case of Ricky McGinn," Bush told reporters in Sacramento.

The stay allows the state to conduct DNA tests to determine whether McGinn, 43, a mechanic with a wife and two children, raped his 12-year-old stepdaughter, Stephanie Flanary, who he was convicted in 1995 of killing with an ax. The rape conviction made him eligible for the death penalty.

"Any time DNA can be used in its context and can be relevant as to the guilt or innocence of a person on death row, we need to use it," Bush said.

"I expect the courts and all relevant parties to act expeditiously to review the evidence to finally determine the innocence or guilt as to the charge of rape in the case of Ricky McGinn."

Earlier, prosecutor Lee Haney called McGinn's appeal "an 11th-hour effort to postpone the execution yet again."

McGinn's lawyer, Richard Alley, said he heard only recently that DNA retesting might exonerate his client from the rape charge.

"We haven't been sleeping on the rights, or asleep at the wheel, in this case," Alley said.

Bush announced the stay while campaigning for president in California after the Supreme Court and a federal appeals court rejected McGinn's 11th-hour motion for a reprieve

The reprieve is the first for a death row inmate under Bush's tenure after 131 executions, the most recent carried out Wednesday night when former prison guard Robert Earl Carter was put to death for six killings.

Bush did commute the death sentence of one inmate Henry Lee Lucas, a confessed serial killer who recanted in prison and is now serving a life term.

A jury in June 1995 found McGinn guilty of raping and killing his stepdaughter. McGinn testified he and Stephanie drank beer together on the day of the murder, May 22, 1993, until she vomited and lost consciousness.

McGinn told police she had taken a nap after drinking beer, woke up and then left on a walk from which she never returned.

Authorities found blood in his truck, which he said was from fish he caught and cleaned. Tests on the blood showed a match to Stephanie's and excluded 99.9 percent of all possible donors.

Similar matches were detected in tests of a blood-covered ax found under the seat of McGinn's pickup truck. Semen was found on the victim's shorts, and a pubic hair recovered during Stephanie's autopsy matched McGinn's, according to prosecution tests -- but the defense has disputed this in its appeal of his death sentence.

Jurors also heard testimony from three witnesses, including McGinn's own daughter, who claimed McGinn forced them into sex acts. His daughter, then 12, said he began molesting her when she was about 3 years old.

Bush recommends reprieve for death row inmate
June 1, 2000

State of Texas Web Site
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