Last minute reprieve for Jew on death row

A federal appeals court has upheld the stay of execution for convicted murderer and rapist Steven Oken, one of a small handfull of Jews on death row.
According to one report,

"Rex Perlmeter, senior rabbi of the 1,500-family Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, where Oken had his bar mitzvah as a boy, said rabbis are 'reaching out to Steven's family. The family is seeking hope and some sort of peace and reconciliation.'
"Davida Oken said her son receives spiritual comfort from a handful of rabbis who have visited him over the last 10 years. While he once practiced Reform Judaism, Oken has embraced Orthodox Judaism on death row, she said, including the morning ritual of attaching tefillin - leather boxes containing biblical passages - to his body.
"'He just loves Judaism at this point and has become enthralled with it,' Davida Oken said. 'He's apologized to his God and to us, and I think he's very comfortable with where he is now.'

Oken was sentenced to die for the 1987 murder of newlywed college student Dawn Marie Garvin, whom he raped and shot. He was also convicted of sexually assaulting and killing his sister-in-law, Patricia Hirt, and raping and fatally shooting motel clerk Lori Ward.