Feb 13 - 2003

Appeals court halts next week's execution

LIVINGSTON -- A Texas death row inmate scheduled to die next week won a reprieve today from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Gregory Van Alstyne, 37, was condemned for the April 1990 robbery and fatal stabbing and beating of James Atkinson Jr., a pizza delivery man in Amarillo.

The appeals court halted the lethal injection set for next Tuesday and returned the case to the trial court in Potter County for review.

At the time of the April 17, 1990, slaying, Van Alstyne had been on parole seven days after serving about 11 months of a five-year term for robbery.

Atkinson, 45, was robbed of $16. Van Alstyne claims another man killed him.