penalty lawyer in any other state."

Now attorneys are trying to deal with the crush of cases, identifying which ones require greater resources, according to lawyers.

"The challenge is that we only have a limited amount of time," said Rob Owen, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin and a veteran death penalty lawyer. "Every hour you devote to looking over a case that's been through the appeals process ... is an hour you can't spend on someone who is at the front end of the process and who might benefit more. It's a world of limited resources and a lot of people in desperate need of those resources."

Unlike other times when the Supreme Court's deliberations slowed the pace of executions, such as when it was decidingdeath penalty. Still, he said in an interview, the executions will go forward.

"Currently," he said, "that's the law of the land, and we have to abide by those laws."

Watkins said his office reviewed the cases again and found no evidence to suggest the inmates were innocent. He said in the future his office will use a "different way of determining if a person is eligible for capital punishment."

Hood and Bower have had execution dates before, only to get stays. Hood, a former bouncer at a topless club, arrived on Death Row in 1990 for the murders of a patron and his girlfriend. Bower arrived on Death Row in 1984 for shooting four men execution-style.

With about 370 inmates on Texas' Death Row, only 16 have been there longer than