HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) - Condemned Texas inmate Samuel Bustamante has lost his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, clearing the way for his execution.
The 40-year-old Bustamante is set for lethal injection Tuesday evening in Huntsville for the fatal stabbing of an illegal immigrant from Mexico during a robbery attempt a dozen years ago.
He'd be the seventh prisoner executed this year in the nation's most active death penalty state.
Bustamante was convicted of the 1998 slaying of a 27-year-old Rafael Alvarado in Fort Bend County, just southwest of Houston. Alvarado became a target of what Bustamante and some of his friends called "shopping trips" where they would hunt illegal immigrants, then beat and rob them.
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