Execution stayed for Western Pa. man who killed 6

PITTSBURGH - A judge has indefinitely delayed the execution of an unemployed immigration lawyer responsible for a Pittsburgh-area shooting rampage that left six people dead.

Richard Baumhammers, 44, of Mount Lebanon, was to be executed March 18. Allegheny County Court Judge Jeffrey Manning stayed that execution yesterday after Baumhammers' attorney filed notice of a new appeal. Gov. Rendell signed a death warrant in January.

Prosecutors said Baumhammers, who is white, was motivated by religious and racial animosity. He shot his Jewish neighbor, two Indian men, a Chinese man, a Vietnamese man, and a black man on April 28, 2000.

He was sentenced to death for killing the five victims who died outright. The sixth, Sandip Patel, 32, of Plum, was left paralyzed and died of complications from pneumonia in 2007. - AP

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[Posted by Ida Micaily]