Execution stay granted
A Fayette County man scheduled for death by lethal injection next month was granted a stay of execution on Thursday. U.S. District Judge Kim R. Gibson signed the order weeks after Gov. Edward G. Rendell signed the warrant to execute James VanDivner, 62.
VanDivner shot and killed his former girlfriend, Michelle Cable, on July 5, 2004, outside her Grindstone home.
He also shot Cable’s son, Billy, as he tried to defend his mother, but did not kill him.
Testimony at his trial indicated he grabbed Michelle Cable by the hair when she tried to run from him, and shot her in the head.
In 2007, jurors convicted VanDivner of first-degree murder, and rejected mitigating claims from his attorneys, sentencing the career criminal to death.
In the order granting the stay, Gibson said that VanDivner’s court-appointed attorneys have until Nov. 15 to file the federal appeal.
Late last month, Gibson granted a request to appoint attorneys to represent VanDivner.
After his conviction, VanDivner’s attorneys appealed to the state Supreme Court, which upheld his conviction and sentence in 2009 by a 5-2 vote.
One of the major issues argued in the case was whether VanDivner was mentally retarded. If he was deemed so, he cannot be put to death because a prior U.S. Supreme Court ruling found executing a mentally retarded person to be cruel and unusual punishment, and deemed it unconstitutional.
The majority of the judges in the state Supreme Court found that there was enough evidence to disprove VanDivner’s claim of mental retardation.
Rendell signed the warrant to execute VanDivner and several others on June 25. The execution date was set for Aug. 17.