Billy Frank Vickers, 58, was executed today for the...

Billy Frank Vickers, 58, was executed today for the slaying of Phillip Kinslow, a grocery store owner, during a robbery on march 12, 1993. He was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m.. Vickers spent 10 hours in a small cell just outside the death chamber Dec. 9 (see DECEMBER 11, 2003) while the courts considered an appeal challenging the constitutionality of the drug combination used in executions. When the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals could not resolve the case by midnight, six hours after Vickers was scheduled to die, the execution warrant expired and Vickers was returned to death row. The following day, inmate Kevin Lee Zimmerman won a court-ordered reprieve in the same appeal. But the reprieve was lifted less than a week later when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the appeal, clearing the way for new execution dates for Zimmerman and Vickers (see December 15, 2003). Zimmerman was put to death last week. (see January 21, 2004). Vickers becomes the 4th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas.