the scheduled Thursday night execution of Joseph Lave...

the scheduled Thursday night execution of Joseph Lave, 42, for his part in the slaying of 2 workers during a robbery was stopped after the Dallas County district attorney's office asked that the execution order be withdrawn because evidence in his case was not turned over to his attorneys. The attorneys had previously been told that the evidence – results of a lie detector test – did not exist.
In an order signed late Wednesday, state District Judge Andy Chatham in Dallas agreed with the request from District Attorney Craig Watkins.
Lave was convicted in Dallas County of being 1 of 3 robbers involved in the Nov. 18, 1992 beating and slashing deaths of Justin Marquart and Frederick Banzaf, both 18.
Co-defendant Timothy Bates agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and is serving a life prison term.
The request by District Attorney Craig Watkins came after his office discovered that long-requested information about a second polygraph test by a co-defendant existed despite the previous district attorney's administration saying it did not.
Mike Ware, who oversees the district attorney's conviction integrity unit, said the district attorney's office found the results of the second polygraph in its files. The second polygraph was taken at the request of the district attorney's office. The evidence came to light within the past few days.
Though Ware wouldn't describe the polygraph results in detail, it "goes to his credibility," he said.
Lave's lawyers had been requesting the information for years as part of the post-conviction process, and Ware said it appeared that the administrations of two previous district attorneys failed to turn it over. Watkins became Dallas County district attorney in January.
Ware announced Thursday the withdrawal of the execution date of Joseph Roland Lave. "We did not feel it would be right to allow the execution to go through without disclosing this information to Mr. Lave's attorneys," Mr. Ware said. "It appears the rule of law was not followed. ... Misrepresentations were made."
The co-defendant, Timothy Bates, did not testify against Mr. Lave, but his statements to police were introduced as evidence. Although the district attorney's office would not detail the outcome of the polygraph, officials said the results directly address Mr. Bates' credibility.
Lave was convicted under the state's law of parties. The law makes anyone who is involved in a capital crime eligible for the death penalty.
In a similar case involving the state's law of parties, under which all co-conspirators share equal culpability if the outcome of the crime was foreseeable, Gov. Rick Perry decided on Aug. 30 (see) to accepted a recommendation from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute the death sentence of Kenneth Foster to life in prison.