Dallas man seeks stay of execution
Father of two is accused of killing his daughters in 2001
HUNTSVILLE, Texas — As her mother listened on the telephone, 9-year-old Faith Battaglia pleaded with her father.
“No, daddy, please don’t, don’t do it!” the child begged.
Mary Jane Pearle yelled into the phone for Faith and her 6-year-old sister, Liberty, to run. Then Pearle heard gunshots.
On Thursday, her ex-husband, John David Battaglia is set for execution for the May 2001 slayings of their daughters.
“Merry … Christmas,” Battaglia told Pearle from his Dallas apartment, the words of the holiday greeting derisively divided by an obscenity. She heard more gunshots, then called 911.
Faith was shot three times and Liberty five. Hours later, Battaglia was at a nearby tattoo shop getting two large red roses inked on his left arm to commemorate his daughters. It took four officers to subdue and arrest him when he walked outside. A fully loaded revolver was found in his truck and more than a dozen firearms were recovered from his apartment.
Battaglia’s attorneys asked a federal appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court to block his lethal injection — the second in the nation this week and third this year, all in Texas — and review his case, arguing he is mentally incompetent for execution. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal court, misapplied the Supreme Court’s guidance when it ruled Battaglia is competent for the death penalty, lawyers argued.
The Supreme Court has ruled prisoners can be executed if they’re aware the death penalty is to be carried out and have a rational understanding of why they face that punishment.