Questions raised about capital case 24 years later

By Michael Graczyk Associated Press Published: Saturday, July 5, 2008 1:54 p.m. MDT SHERMAN, Texas — Three months after four bodies were found shot execution-style in an airplane hangar on the B&B Ranch north of Dallas in 1984, chemical salesman Lester Leroy Bower Jr. was charged with capital murder. Four months later, a jury deliberated just two hours before convicting him, then deliberated only two hours more the following day before deciding he should die for the crime. No fingerprints put him at the scene. No witnesses saw him there. The murder weapon never was found. Bower never confessed. DNA testing wasn't available then. More than 20 years later, a state judge has stopped Bower's scheduled July 22 execution and has agreed to consider his request that evidence be examined to see if DNA testing could back up his claim... [read full story]