The US Supreme Court Monday denied to stay the execution to Robert Fratta in the case of Fratta v. Lumpkin. Fratta applied for two stays, which the court denied. Fratta is set to be executed in Texas on Tuesday. Fratta’s execution will be Texas’s first execution in 2023. The Supreme Court Order List 2023 also listed Fratta’s certiorari to the court as denied.

In 1996, a Texas jury convicted Fratta of hiring someone to murder his wife and sentenced him to death. Fratta filed two state habeas petitions. Fratta argued that there was “insufficient evidence to support a capital conviction” and that “the jury instructions used to convict him strayed from the grand jury conviction and convicted him as a party rather than the person to pull the trigger.” The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Fratta’s first petition, and a federal district court denied his second. The courts held that the claims were barred procedurally and had no merit upon which Fratta could succeed.

Fratta filed a Rule 60 (b) motion , which allows courts to relieve a party from a final judgment, to reopen his federal habeas case, which was dismissed by the federal district court. Fratta then filed for a full appeal on January 5, 2022, citing the case of Harbison v. Bell. However, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit denied Fratta’s motion for certificate of appealability on the basis that Fratta had not “presented colourable constitutional claims.” Thus the court upheld Fratta’s conviction and sentence.

Fratta’s request to stay with the US Supreme Court was his final appeal of his execution. Fratta sat on death row for 26 years before Texas scheduled his execution, which is set to occur Tuesday.