USA - Pennsylvania. U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer stays Richard Baumhammers execution.

U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer stays Baumhammers execution. A federal judge has stayed the death warrant for Richard Baumhammers, 49, White.. Baumhammers was sentenced to death in 2001 in the April 28, 2000, slayings of 5 people belonging to racial minorities. Baumhammers, a former lawyer, killed Anita Gordon, Baumhammers’ Jewish neighbor; Anil Thakur, from India; Thao “Tony” Pham, a Vietnamese immigrant; Ji-Ye “Jerry” Sun, a Chinese immigrant and Garry Lee, an African American. A 6th victim, an Indian man left paralyzed, eventually died from his wounds in 2007. Gov. Tom Corbett signed the warrant Monday because Baumhammers exhausted his state court appeals. The judge stayed the warrant pending a federal court appeal. The execution might have been jeopardized anyway because the state Department of Corrections has been having difficulty buying lethal injection drugs since anti-death penalty activists began trying to publicize the companies which supply the drugs.