Texas briefs

Texas man set to die Tuesday for killing 22-month-old child in shooting spree

LIVINGSTON (AP) — Condemned Texas prisoner Alvin Kelly says he's at peace with his likely execution Tuesday evening even though he insists he wasn't involved in a shooting spree that left three people dead, including a 22-month-old child.

"As I stand before God, I'm innocent of this case," Kelly said last week from outside death row. "I'm not saying this to save my life. My life is for God."

Kelly, 57, would be the 10th Texas prisoner executed this year in the nation's busiest capital punishment state. He's among a dozen condemned inmates scheduled to die over the next six weeks, including another set for lethal injection on Thursday.

Kelly's lawyer, Scott Smith, was not optimistic but hoped the U.S. Supreme Court would stop the punishment while it considered another case from Tennessee about whether poor death row inmates seeking mercy from state officials have a right to lawyers paid by federal taxpayers.

Recent appeal attempts by other condemned inmates citing that case have not been successful.

"I doubt they're going to issue a stay on this one," Smith said.

Kelly already was serving a 30- year prison term for murder when he was convicted of killing Devin Morgan, the 22-monthold son of Jerry and Brenda Morgan. Relatives discovered the bodies of the child and his parents at their Gregg County home in 1984. All had been shot. Several items were missing from the home, including a car, at least five guns and some television and stereo gear.

The slayings went unsolved for six years until a man told authorities that his former wife, who also had been married to Kelly, had information about the crime.

San Antonio police enact new Taser policy

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A new policy by Police Chief William McManus stops officers from using Tasers on anyone "known to be under the influence of drugs," limits the number of officers using the weapon against a person to one, and, increases the training time for officers to wield Tasers.

Effective immediately, Mc- Manus said officers are prohibited from using Tasers — weapons that deliver shocks of enough voltage to disrupt a person's neuromuscular system — if they have "firsthand knowledge" that someone is on drugs.

"You have to see them using (drugs)," said McManus in Tuesday's online edition of the San Antonio Express-News. The newspaper had published an investigation into how police have used the weapons since December 2006.

He said the new policy, issued Thursday in an internal bulletin, is in correlation to " excited delirium," a diagnosis described as an overdose of adrenaline to the heart and a possible cause of death among people who were shocked by Tasers.

"The research has connected excited delirium to deaths," Mc- Manus said, adding, "Excited delirium is a possibility when drugs are being used."

The policy does not limit the number of times an officer can shock someone, although it requires that police stop using the weapon when a person is in custody. The new policy requires officers who use Tasers to get 16 hours of training, doubling the requirement.

The police chief is sending the 141 officers who already use the weapons back to the training academy for another eight hours of training.

Austin police chief reinstates fired officer

AUSTIN (AP) — Police Chief Art Acevedo has reinstated a fired officer by changing the findings to "inconclusive" in an internal affairs investigation after possible errors in the case were brought to light, officials said.

Aaron York is scheduled to return to work on Tuesday after being fired June 6 following an investigation that looked into whether he allegedly provided false information on his arrest affidavit involving a suspect, whom York had said resisted arrest. Video from his patrol car did not support his claim.

Acevedo on Monday reinstated York, however, Acevedo sustained charges that York had engaged in insubordination and did not appropriately complete reports. Acevedo said in a one-page memo that York would not be given back pay for the time he was out of work.

York has agreed to withdraw a pending appeal asking that the discipline be overturned.

At the time, York told investigators and police administrators that he did not intentionally provide false information. York said he "wrote what he remembered."

"He won't make those mistakes again," said Acevedo in Tuesday's online edition of the Austin American-Statesman.

According to a disciplinary memo from Acevedo earlier this year, York responded on Dec. 14, 2007 to a report of a man screaming in an alley. After asking the man for identification, York arrested him on public intoxication charges.

York said that on the way to the patrol car, the man resisted and "tried to pull away," the document said.

The video shows that the suspect was intoxicated but does not show him trying to kick York.