Reprieve, Hearings Ordered for Killer

The execution of torture-murderer Gary Heidnik was put on hold when state Supreme Court justices voted 4-2 to give him a reprieve and ordered hearings into whether he is mentally competent. The court told the state and death penalty opponents to file papers next week in anticipation of arguments on Heidnik’s competency later this month. The U.S. Supreme Court later refused to lift the state court’s stay. Heidnik, condemned in 1988 for torturing and killing two women, has never fought his death sentence, but death penalty opponents did and won the right for his daughter to intervene.