U.S. top court declines to hear Texas death row inmate's appeal

By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal filed by Texas death row inmate Lester Bower, including his assertion that three decades on death row amount to cruel and unusual punishment. Bower, 67, is one of the longest-serving prisoners on death row in Texas. He was sentenced to death for murdering four men in 1983 in an aircraft hangar near Sherman, Texas. Three of the court's nine justices said they would have heard the case. In February, the high court put Bower’s execution on hold so it could consider his appeal. Bower had been scheduled to be executed on Feb. 10. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote a brief opinion on behalf of himself and two fellow liberal justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor, saying he would have heard the case. Among the legal questions that Bower raised was whether the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment had been violated by his more than 30-year stay on death row. According to Bower's court filings, he has faced imminent execution on six different occasions during his time in prison. Lawyers for Bower have tried for more than two decades to have his conviction thrown out, saying he was found guilty due to faulty witness testimony. Bower has denied ever being at the hangar where the murders took place but authorities said aircraft parts found in his home and other evidence implicated him in the crimes. Bower killed Bob Tate to steal an ultralight plane Tate was trying to sell and then killed the other three men when they unexpectedly showed up at the hangar, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said. The case is Bower v. Texas, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 14-292. (Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham)