The Brief
- Charles Thompson was the first Texas execution of the year on Wednesday.
- Thompson was sentenced to death for the 1998 killings of his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend in Houston.
- Thompson escaped from jail in 2005, sparking a three-day manhunt before he was found in Louisiana.
HUNTSVILLE, Texas – A man convicted of the double murder of his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend in 1998 was executed Wednesday night.
Charles Thompson was convicted in 1999 for the murders of his ex-girlfriend, Dennise Hayslip, 39, and her new boyfriend Darren Keith Cain, 30. Thompson was the first person executed in Texas this year.
Thompson’s attorneys filed for a stay of execution earlier this month claiming ineffective counsel during his trial and claiming that the hospital was at fault for Hayslip’s death. The filing includes claims that a doctor who testified at Thompson’s trial about Hayslip’s cause of death would now say that medical complications were the cause of death.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Thompson’s motion for a stay on Tuesday.
Shooting deaths of Hayslip and Cain
The backstory:…