In Texas We Close At 5: And Other Forms of Legal Trouble

Okay, so the clerk was a bureaucrat. Here is a file story from MSNBC's "News of the Weird," with the site source listed.

"In September, just minutes after the court's lethal-injection case was accepted, lawyers for Michael Richard, who was scheduled to die that evening, rushed to file a stay with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeal and promised delivery by 5:20 p.m. The court clerk responded, "We close at 5"; the petition didn't make it, and Richard was executed at 8:23." [Austin American-Statesman, 9-28-07]

Here is the link: http://www.msnbc.com/comics/nw.asp