By JUAN A. LOZANO and MICHAEL GRACZYK
Associated Press

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) - A 61-year-old Texas inmate faces execution for killing a Houston police officer more than three decades ago.

Robert Jennings is scheduled to receive lethal injection Wednesday evening. He was condemned for the July 1988 slaying of Officer Elston Howard during a robbery at an adult bookstore.

If executed, he would be the first inmate put to death this year both in the U.S. and in Texas, the nation's busiest capital punishment state.

Jennings' attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to delay his execution.

They argue his trial attorneys failed to ask jurors to fully consider evidence - including details of his remorse for the officer's shooting and possible brain damage - that might have spared him a death sentence.

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