No quick decisions on Jackson's execution appeal

No decisions were immediately issued in two last-minute hearings in two separate courts today on motions intended to halt the Friday execution of convicted ax murderer Robert W. Jackson III.
In the first hearing, which took place in Wilmington before U.S. District Judge Sue L. Robinson, Jackson’s attorneys objected to the use of the new chemical Delaware uses as part of its three-drug lethal-injection formula. In the second hearing, which took place in Dover, attorneys asked the state Supreme Court to delay the execution so the land’s highest court can review the case.
Jackson is scheduled to be executed between midnight and 3 a.m. Friday for the 1992 killing of 47-year-old Elizabeth Girardi during a robbery of her Hockessin home. A cousin of Girardi declined to comment as he and other family left Robinson’s courtroom.
Court records show Girardi was killed with an ax after encountering Jackson and accomplice Anthony Lachette leaving her home with property they had stolen and planned to pawn to buy drugs.
Two different juries voted for Jackson’s death penalty, which was imposed both times by a judge.
Jackson, however, has claimed that Lachette killed Girardi. Lachette has since been released from prison.