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Texas set to execute man convicted of
stabbing woman to death
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 [July 27, 2017]
By Jon Herskovitz
AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Texas is set to
execute on Thursday a man convicted of murdering a woman by stabbing her
repeatedly after breaking into her San Antonio home in 2004.
TaiChin Preyor, 46, is set to be executed by lethal injection at the
state's death chamber in Huntsville at 6 p.m. (2300 GMT). If the
execution goes ahead, it would be the 543rd in Texas since the U.S.
Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, the most of any
state.
Lawyers for Preyor have launched a last-minute appeal to halt the
execution, arguing prior counsel was incompetent and included a lawyer
who lost his law license two decades earlier and another attorney with
no death penalty experience who used Wikipedia to navigate Texas' death
penalty system.
"Preyor’s trial counsel conducted a paltry mitigation investigation
which deprived the jury of critical evidence related to Preyor’s
traumatic childhood — one marked by severe physical and sexual abuse,"
his current lawyers said in court filings.
Preyor was convicted of killing Jami Tackett, 24, in her San Antonio
home. He also stabbed a man who was with Tackett. The man survived and
called police as the attack unfolded, the Texas Attorney General's
Office said.
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Taichin Preyor is pictured in this undated handout photo obtained by
Reuters July 26, 2017. Texas Department of Criminal Justice/Handout
via REUTERS
"Several of Tackett’s neighbors heard her screaming and saw Preyor
when he left her apartment. They saw Tackett on the floor, covered
in blood and making gurgling sounds," the office said.
Preyor told police he went to Tackett's home to buy drugs and was
attacked by the pair.
A U.S. district judge in San Antonio dismissed a motion from Preyor
to halt the execution earlier this week.
(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Paul Tait)
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