Texas Death Row Man’s Appeal Rejected

HOUSTON (AP)  A 43-year-old Dallas man on death row for killing a supervisor at an Amarillo state prison shoe factory has lost a federal court appeal, moving him a step closer to execution.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected arguments from condemned inmate Travis Trevino Runnels that he had deficient legal help when he was tried for the January 2003 slaying of 38-year-old Stanley Wiley at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Clements Unit in Amarillo.

Runnels was serving 70 years for a 1997 aggravated robbery conviction from Dallas and apparently was angry after being assigned janitor duty at the prison shoe factory. He'd asked to work at the prison barber shop.

Wiley's throat was slashed with a knife. He'd been with the prison system for nearly nine years.