Montana: Lesbian couple’s house set on fire after lawsuit

The house of a lesbian couple was set on fire Friday, just days after they had been named as lead plaintiffs in a discrimination lawsuit against the Montana university system.

Carla Grayson and Adrianne Neff, escaped the early morning blaze with their infant child through a window. They were not seriously injured.

Police Capt. Bob Reid said it appeared the intruder broke into the home, poured flammable liquid, then set it on fire. The house was gutted.

The American Civil Liberties Union said the women and other plaintiffs received death threats after the suit was filed.

“Whoever set this fire did not intend to simply frighten or intimidate this family. They meant to kill them,” said Matt Coles, director of the ACLU Lesbian and Gay Rights Project.

The ACLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of gay and lesbian employees who claim the state university system violates their rights by denying their partners health insurance and other benefits.

Grayson is a psychology professor at the University of Montana in Missoula.

Louisiana: Court stops execution

The U.S. Supreme Court halted the execution of a Louisiana inmate Friday night less than a half-hour before he was scheduled to die.

Warden Burl Cain told inmate Leslie Martin and witnesses that the justices had blocked the execution so they can consider whether to hear Martin’s appeal.

“The prisoner was a little bit stunned, a little bit shocked,” Cain said.

Martin, 34, was convicted of raping, killing and mutilating 19-year-old Christina Burgin in in 1991 in Lake Charles. Her parents were among witnesses at the prison.

Appeals centered on several issues, including Martin’s claim that prosecutors had no physical evidence of rape an important element because rape was an aggravating factor that supported the death sentence.