4:29 p.m.  Tuesday   A federal judge in Missouri has given a stay of execution to white supremacist serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin just hours before his scheduled death.

U.S. District Court Judge Nanette Laughery ruled late Tuesday afternoon that a lawsuit filed by Franklin and 21 other death-row inmates challenging Missouri’s execution protocol must first be resolved.

The 63-year-old inmate was scheduled to die at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday for killing 42-year-old Gerald Gordon in a sniper attack outside a suburban St. Louis synagogue in 1977.

It was one of as many as 20 killings committed by Franklin, who targeted blacks and Jews in a cross-country killing spree from 1977 to 1980.

 

1:30 p.m.  (AP) — The Missouri Supreme Court has denied appeals on behalf of white supremacist serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin, hours before his scheduled execution.

The court refused Tuesday to grant a stay based on three separate appeals: One claiming Franklin’s life should be spared because he is mentally ill, one claiming faulty jury instruction when he was given the death penalty and one raising concern about Missouri’s first-ever use of a new execution drug, pentobarbital.

The rulings were made without comment.

Appeals are still pending before federal courts.

Franklin is scheduled to die at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday for a sniper killing at a suburban St. Louis synagogue in 1977. He has also been convicted of seven other murders in four other states and has claimed responsibility for up to 20 killings.