Two stays of execution

Two judges have issued two separate stays of execution for Darold Ray Stenson, who was scheduled to be executed next week.
A judge in Clallam County granted the stay and ordered additional DNA testing in the case after a prison inmate came forward with new information indicating that Stenson may have been framed for the 1993 shooting deaths of his wife and a business partner.
Clallam County Prosecutor Deborah Kelly said she intends to appeal the judge's ruling, perhaps as early as today.
At the same time, a federal judge in Yakima has indefinitely delayed the execution during a conference call today with lawyers.
Assistant Attorney General Sara Olson, who is one of the attorneys handling the case for the state, said her office is filing an emergency motion asking an appeals court to vacate Suko's decision. Stenson, 55, was set to be executed Dec. 3.
Stenson was sentencing to death for killing his wife Denise and his business partner Frank Hoerner on March 25, 1993. Authorities say that Stenson staged the slaying inside his Sequim-area ranch to look like a murder- suicide so he could collect a $400,000 life insurance policy that he took out for his wife. Prosecutors say he killed Hoerner because he owed him $50,000.
Stenson's three young children — ages 6, 4 and 1 — were asleep in the house when their mother and Hoerner were slain.
He was convicted of aggravated murder deaths of his wife and a business partner while his three young children slept nearby in his Clallam County farmhouse.
Stenson would be the first inmate put to death since 2001 if none of his pending appeals is granted.
Seattle Times staff reporter Jennifer Sullivan and The Associated Press contributed to this report
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