DeLay sought for July 1 execution

By RENEE C. LEE
HOUSTON CHRONICLE

A Conroe man scheduled to die by injection on July 1 has filed a petition seeking a reprieve because he says there's new evidence — a confession and flawed autopsy testimony — that proves he did not commit a 2001 murder.

Attorneys for Michael Perry, 28, filed paperwork this week, asking the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to recommend to Gov. Rick Perry that he grant a 180-day delay or a commutation of their client's sentence.

Attorney Jessica Mederson, with Vinson & Elkins in Austin, is representing Perry, who has been on death row since March 2003 for the slaying of 50-year-old Sandra Stotler on Oct. 24, 2001.

Mederson declined to comment on the case, but said more documents will be filed next week.

Disputing date of death

According to the petition, the new evidence comes from a medical examiner hired by the attorneys to review Stotler's autopsy report. The review showed that her death occurred Oct. 26, not Oct. 24. Perry was in jail on a traffic offense Oct. 26, making it impossible for him to have committed the murder, the petition said.

The new date of death also contradicts the testimony of then-Harris County Medical Examiner Dr. Paul Shrode, who conducted the autopsy. During the trial, Shrode could not give an exact time of death and did not dispute the prosecution's assertion that Stotler was killed Oct. 24, the petition said.

The filing also notes that Shrode's credibility and expertise have come under fire in last few months. In May, he was fired from his job as medical examiner of El Paso County for falsifying his qualifications. Also, on June 4 an Ohio death row inmate received clemency because of faulty testimony from Shrode, who conducted the victim's autopsy.