A man convicted of killing a schoolteacher in 1993 has been scheduled to be put to death April 23, the state attorney general's office said.  Jason Scott Byram, 38, was convicted of stabbing 36-year-old Julie Johnson to death as she slept on a sofa in her home while her family slept upstairs. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Byram's appeal, said Trey Walker, a spokesman for the attorney general's office. A federal appeals court previously rejected Byram's claim that mistakes by his lawyers denied him a fair trial. Byram has not chosen whether to die by lethal injection or electrocution, according to the state Corrections Department. Johnson's home was broken into May 23, 1993. Byram was arrested later that afternoon. He told authorities he had entered Johnson's home and stabbed her but said it was an accomplice who stabbed her repeatedly, the attorney general's office said. According to testimony, police tried to find the accomplice but found no evidence of one. UPDATE: Condemned inmate Jason Scott Byram has chosen to be electrocuted by the state Corrections Department on April 23, according to the agency. Electrocutions in South Carolina and throughout the country have been rare in recent years. The last inmate to choose to die in the electric chair in this state was Larry Gene Bell in 1996. Bell was convicted of murdering 2 young girls. Before Bell, mass murderer Donald "Pee Wee" Gaskins was executed in the electric chair in 1991 - before the state lethal injection as an option. Byram's attorney Jay Elliott said Tuesday he had heard his client had chosen electrocution, but he had not yet spoken with him. "He can change his mind," said Elliott, who was unsure whether he would try to persuade his client one way or another. "I think that ultimate determination is up to him." In South Carolina, inmates can choose between lethal injection and electrocution. Nationwide, there have been 21 executions this year - none by electrocution, according to Robert Deans, a researcher with Death Penalty Information Center. The last electrocution in the United States was Eric Bramblett on April 9, 2003, in Virginia, Deans said.

In the early morning of June 7, 1993, James Lee Clark and James Brown arrived at a Texaco store in Denton, Texas, and asked the store clerk to call an ambulance for Brown who had suffered a gunshot wound. Subsequent investigation revealed that Brown accidentally shot himself in the leg at point blank range with a shotgun while he and Clark were assaulting Shari Catherine "Cari" Crews, 16 and Jesus Garza, 17, at Clear Creek. Police recovered both bodies from the creek and determined that Crews had been sexually assaulted by Clark, as verified by DNA evidence, and then killed with a single shotgun wound (a contact wound) to the back of the head. Garza also died from a single shotgun wound, but it was to the left side of his chin or jaw. Powder residue revealed a short muzzle-to-wound distance, but it was not a contact wound. Police also recovered a 12 gauge double barrel shotgun and a .22 caliber rifle from the crime scene. Further investigation revealed that Clark and Brown, both parolees, stole the shotgun and rifle in car burglaries on June 4, 1993. The stock of the rifle had been shortened and police found the sawed off portion while searching Clark's residence; the stock of the shotgun was cracked. The search of Clark's residence also produced tennis shoes splattered with the blood of Brown, Crews, and Garza. During interrogation, Clark stated that Brown instigated the incident; shot himself while using the shotgun as a bludgeon to strike Garza in the head; and, after suffering the severe gunshot wound to the leg, shot and killed both victims. Brown contended that Clark killed both victims. Clark was indicted on the charge of capital murder arising out of the June 7, 1993, robbery, sexual assault, and death of Crews. Clark was convicted of the capital murder on April 29, 1994, and he was sentenced to death on May 3, 1994. UPDATE: Ten years after the murders of two high school students, their killer is pretending to be mentally retarded to avoid execution, prosecutors argued during a hearing in September of 2003. But defense attorneys said the man, James Lee Clark, is impaired and should be spared because the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that executing the mentally retarded is cruel and unusual. State District Judge Lee Gabriel has about two months to rule on whether Clark is mentally retarded. This hearing was a continuation of one that began in August. Clark was sentenced to death for killing Catherine "Cari" Crews in 1993. Crews, 17, and a friend, 16-year-old Jesus Gilberto Garza, were robbed and killed with a shotgun. Their bodies were dumped in a creek north of Denton. Crews was sexually assaulted. Clark was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to die. An accomplice, James Richard Brown, was sentenced to 20 years for robbery. Assistant District Attorney Vicki Foster, who tried Clark's original case, said Clark has changed his behavior. "This isn't him. During the original trial, he participated, he made wisecracks," she said. Clark was scheduled to die in November 2002, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a stay two days before his execution. The courts define mental retardation as having an IQ below 70. Clark's IQ was 74 when he was sent to the Texas Youth Commission after a juvenile conviction in 1983. Two other tests showed Clark's IQ at 65 and 68. Thomas Allen, a psychologist for the prosecution, said he believes Clark was deliberately getting answers wrong on those tests. Clark reached the equivalent of the 12th grade at the Gainesville State School, completed a GED and took a community college welding class, testimony showed. George C. Denkowski, a psychologist for the defense, questioned Allen's findings. Allen interviewed Clark for only two hours and 16 minutes and never performed any tests to prove whether Clark was malingering, Denkowski said. Clark's cell on Death Row contained copies of newspaper articles, crossword puzzles and two novels: A Tale of Two Cities and Lord Jim. But none of the crosswords had been completed, and his attorneys said outside the courtroom that he never read the books. A few members of Garza's family and a friend of the Crews family were in the courtroom Monday. Clark sported horn-rimmed glasses and a shaven head. He spent most of his time looking down at the defense table. Occasionally, his head twitched, and he appeared to mumble to himself. UPDATE: In November of 2003, a judge ruled that even if the man who killed a 17-year-old Denton high school student 10 years ago is mildly retarded, he is not so impaired that he can be exempted from the death penalty. James Lee Clark also cannot be classified as mentally retarded because he fails to meet the criteria of the definition set in the Texas Health and Safety Code, 367th state District Judge Lee Gabriel states in her ruling. The decision will now be reviewed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Attorneys for Clark had cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that bars execution of the mentally retarded. That ruling came down in June 2002, before Clark was to be executed in November 2002 for killing Catherine "Cari" Crews, a Ryan High School student. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted Clark a stay of execution in November 2002 after he and his attorneys invoked the Supreme Court ruling. The bodies of Crews and 16-year-old Jesus Gilberto Garza, a classmate and acquaintance, were found in a creek north of Denton with shotgun wounds to the head. Both were robbed and shot the night of June 7, 1993. Clark _ who had not previously claimed to be mentally retarded _ was arrested in connection with the fatal shootings while on parole after serving less than a year of a 10-year term for burglary in Dallas County. An accomplice in the murders, James Richard Brown, received a 20-year prison sentence for robbery.