12th Texas Execution this year

Condemned inmate Joseph Ries looked to the U.S. Supreme Court to keep him from the Texas death chamber Tuesday evening for the slaying of a 64-year-old Northeast Texas man during a burglary almost a decade ago.

Ries, 28, faced lethal injection for breaking into the rural Hopkins County home of Robert Ratliff, fatally shooting him as the man slept, then driving off in the victim's car.

Ries would be the 12th prisoner executed this year in the nation's most active death penalty state and the first of two scheduled to die this week. Two were executed last week and two more are set to die next week.

Ries' lawyer, James Terry Jr., asked the Supreme Court court to halt the punishment and examine the case, contending among his arguments that Ries' rights were violated because his earlier appeals were handled by an incompetent attorney. Terry also argued Ries' trial lawyer failed to adequately show jurors how Ries was raised by a drug-addicted and alcoholic mother whose parental rights twice were revoked, and how Ries was abused in some of the dozen foster homes where lived.