Gay Basher’s Execution Put on Hold

The scheduled execution of Richard Laird, who was twice convicted of the 1987 murder of gay artist Anthony Milano, has been put on hold.

Laird, along with his drinking buddy Frank Chester, was found guilty in 1988 of the brutal slaying, which occurred in Bucks County, Pa. While Chester's conviction was recently overturned, Gov. Tom Corbett signed a death warrant for Laird March 14, calling for him to be put to death this month.

In April a Bucks County judge granted Laird a stay of execution while his attorneys pursued appeals, giving them until June 17 to file an amended petition, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. The following day a U.S. district court judge also granted a stay.

The murder of Milano -- who reportedly met Laird and Chester in a bar and was later found dead along a road, beaten and with his throat slashed so severely that his spinal cord was severed -- was one of the state's first widely publicized gay bashings.

After Laird's original conviction was overturned by a judge in 2001, he was retried for the murder six years later, convicted a second time, and again sentenced to death.

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