U.S. judge blocks Pennsylvania's execution of immigration lawyer
By Elizabeth Daley (Reuters) - A federal judge has issued a stay of execution for an immigration lawyer convicted of killing five people in racially motivated attacks outside of Pittsburgh in 2000, a spokesman for Pennsylvania's governor said on Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer granted Richard Baumhammers, 49, the stay on Tuesday, pending further proceedings "or until further order of this Court," according to court papers provided by Governor Tom Corbett's office. The stay will allow the Baumhammers to pursue a federal appeal. Corbett had signed his death warrant a day earlier, and the execution had been scheduled for December. Baumhammers murdered Anita Gordon, Anil Thakur, Ji-Ye Sun, Thao Pak Pham and Garry Lee, and paralyzed Sandip Patel in Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania, on April 28, 2000. He was formally sentenced to death after a jury found him guilty in 2001. According to a press release issued by the governor's office, Baumhammers murdered Gordon in her home before entering an Indian grocery story at a nearby strip mall where he killed Thakur and paralyzed Patel. Baumhammers then walked into a Chinese restaurant at another strip mall and murdered Pham, a delivery man, and Sun, the restaurant manager. From there, Baumhammers went to a karate studio, and executed Lee, a black man. Baumhammers was arrested the day of the attacks and didn't deny his crimes, but said he had mental problems, according to the news release. While incarcerated, Baumhammers told a fellow inmate that at least one of the murders was racially motivated and expressed hatred for all "ethnic" people, the press release stated. It is the second time an execution warrant for Baumhammers has been stayed, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. Pennsylvania has not carried out a death sentence since July 6, 1999, when Gary Heidnik of Philadelphia was put to death for rape, imprisonment and two murders. (Reporting by Elizabeth Daley in Pittsburgh; Editing By Frank McGurty and Sandra Maler)
