Indiana inmate confirmed by archbishop receives stay of execution

Published: 2004-06-08

INDIANAPOLIS (CNS) -- Federal death-row inmate David Paul Hammer's prayers were answered June 3 when a federal appeals court in Philadelphia issued a stay of execution. Hammer, who was received into the Catholic Church by Indianapolis Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein on Oct. 27, 2000, at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, had been scheduled to die by chemical injection June 8. The archbishop also gave Hammer first Communion and confirmed him in the 2000 ceremony. The stay of execution will enable Hammer's attorneys to resume in October the appeal of his Nov. 4, 1998, death sentence on first-degree murder charges in a court in Williamsport, Pa. Defense attorney David A. Ruhnke told the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in April that Hammer regretted his decision to drop his appeals process in January. The appeals court's June 3 ruling marks the third time that Hammer has received a stay of execution. Other stays were granted in January 1999 and November 2000.

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