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Nation in brief

Texas court grants stay of execution

By wire services
Published March 25, 2006

DALLAS - A Texas court on Friday put off the execution of a man who had been scheduled to die Tuesday for killing a Houston bar owner in 1983.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will review the case of Raymond Martinez, 59, and probably send it back to trial court, said Roe Wilson, a Harris County prosecutor.

A U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1989 resulted in a Texas law saying jurors must be instructed to consider mitigating evidence that could prevent them from voting for a death sentence. Martinez's conviction came after the court decision but before the state changed jury instructions, Wilson said.

Some evidence in the trial indicated Martinez was mentally ill.

Evidence showed Martinez and two accomplices entered the Long Branch Saloon in Houston in July 1983 to commit a robbery. Owner Herman Chavis was shot to death.

LOS ANGELES - Thousands of people across the country protested Friday against legislation cracking down on illegal immigrants, with demonstrators in such cities as Los Angeles, Phoenix and Atlanta staging school walkouts, marches and work stoppages.

Congress is considering bills that would make it a felony to be illegally in the United States, impose new penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants and erect fences along one-third of the U.S.-Mexican border. The proposals have angered many Hispanics.

In Phoenix, police said 10,000 demonstrators marched to the office of Sen. Jon Kyl, co-sponsor of a bill that would give illegal immigrants up to five years to leave the country. The turnout clogged a major thoroughfare.

Kyl had no immediate comment on the rally.

At least 500 students at Huntington Park High School near Los Angeles walked out of classes in the morning. Hundreds of the students, some carrying Mexican flags, walked down the middle of Los Angeles streets, police cruisers behind them.

SCHOOL BUS CRASH: A school bus collided with a cattle truck in heavy fog early Friday, injuring four students and sending animals spilling onto a northeastern Colorado highway in a chain-reaction wreck, officials said. The students were taken to a hospital in Greeley, Colo., with minor injuries.

BUS STOP BEATING: A 15-year-old boy died after being beaten as he waited for a bus near his Milwaukee school, police said. Authorities were seeking four or five suspects. The victim, Raheim Patrick, was a seventh-grader at Malcolm X Academy.

[Last modified March 25, 2006, 01:51:17]