TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — One of the five death row inmates set to have their sentences carried out in Terre Haute has asked for a stay of execution, citing a potential racial bias in the original jury.
Lezmond Mitchell was convicted in 2003 of stabbing to death a 63-year-old grandmother and slitting the throat of her nine-year-old granddaughter. Their beheaded, mutilated bodies were found in a shallow grave on a Navajo reservation.
His execution is scheduled for Dec. 11.
Mitchell’s attorneys said Tuesday that they filed the request for a stay, arguing that their client, a Navajo man, should be given the opportunity to investigate his concerns about potential racial bias by the jury that heard his case.
They said that executing him without looking into potential juror bias would be “a grave injustice.”
