February
6, 2002
Executions
put on hold for now The deaths of two Florida inmates are delayed amid
signs a constitutional challenge in Arizona has sweeping effects.
By
JAMIE JONES,
STARKE
- The scheduled executions of two Florida death row inmates were put on
hold Tuesday amid growing signs that a constitutional challenge to Arizona's
death penalty law was spilling over into other states. First, the U.S.
Supreme Court granted a reprieve for Linroy Bottoson three hours before his
scheduled 6 p.m. execution for the 1979 killing of Catherine Alexander, a
74-year-old Eatonville postmaster.
Later
in the day, Gov. Jeb Bush said he would issue an executive order delaying
the execution of Robert Trease, who was scheduled to die Thursday for the
1995 murder of Paul Edenson at St. Armand's Key in Sarasota. Bush cited the
court's order in his decision.
"This
is a judicially imposed moratorium on the death penalty in Florida,"
said death penalty opponent Michael Radelet, a Colorado sociology professor
and leading authority on capital punishment in Florida.
Carolyn
Snurkowski, who oversees criminal appeals for Florida Attorney General Bob
Butterworth, wouldn't take it as far. She said her office will continue
litigation against death row inmates until the Supreme Court rules on the
Arizona case.
"We
have to just proceed as we would normally do," she said.
None
of the other 370 people on Florida's death row has been scheduled for
execution. A Bush spokeswoman said he hasn't decided whether to refrain
from signing any new death warrants.
"We
have not gotten to that point right now," Elizabeth Hirst said.
Just
last month, the U.S. Supreme Court delayed a third Florida execution, that
of Amos Lee King. He previously survived two death warrants for the 1977
rape and murder of Natalie "Tillie" Brady, a Tarpon Springs widow
who lived near the work-release center King escaped from.
It
has been more than a year since Florida executed a death row inmate. That
was Robert Dewey Glock II, executed last January for the murder of Sharilyn
Ritchie, a Manatee County schoolteacher.
The
Arizona case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court makes further delays
likely for Florida executions.
The
legal issue at stake is a constitutional challenge to the power of judges
to impose Arizona's capital punishment law. Arizona, Florida and several
other states give judges -- rather than juries -- the power to impose death
sentences.
Marty
McClain, a lawyer who represents death row inmates, said the fact that Bush
stopped the execution of Trease, who said he would not fight his death,
indicates no other death warrants will be signed before a ruling.
"Bush
recognized and obviously decided that with the state's death penalty
statute under a cloud," he didn't want to go through with the Trease
execution, McClain said.
The
Supreme Court doesn't grant stays "willy nilly," McClain added.
"This means the five justices think the person asking for a stay has a
pretty good chance of prevailing."
Bush
has presided over eight executions and signed 13 death warrants since
taking office in 1999. He also signed laws last year extending access to
DNA testing to death row inmates and barring the execution of mentally
retarded people.
Radelet
said the court's reprieve gives Florida voters a chance to revisit the
state's capital punishment laws and decide whether they want death in the
hands of judges or juries.
Until
1972, state law required a unanimous jury to impose death, he said.
Currently, a jury makes a sentencing recommendation to a judge, who decides
whether to follow it.
Sen.
Victor Crist, R-Tampa, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee,
said the Legislature will await the court's decision and respond
accordingly.
"If
we find there's a portion of our statutes that's out of line with the
Constitution, then we will correct it," he said. "We're at a time
when those who would oppose capital punishment are using every opportunity
to shut down the process, and they're entitled to their day in court."
Bottoson,
62, had already finished his requested last meal of steamed shrimp, fried
oysters, butter pecan ice cream and apple pie when the stay came.
"He
was very relieved," said Bottoson's attorney, Peter Cannon, who was on
his way to Starke when he got word from Washington.
Already
at the state prison were four children of Alexander, a well-known member of
the Eatonville community who sang alto in the church choir and was known
around town as "Mama."
Alexander's
family was "upset, depressed and disgusted," said Edward
Snodderly, husband of Evelyn Banks, one of Alexander's children.
"All
of them were hoping it would happen today so they could get on with their
lives," Snodderly said.
Bottoson
and his wife came under suspicion for Alexander's murder after they tried
to cash money orders stolen from the post office. Police found hair samples
and one of Alexander's fingernails in or on Bottoson's car.
Bottoson
confessed to the murder, saying "demon spirits" had "got on
me," his minister testified at trial.
In
the latest round of appeals, Bottoson's attorneys have argued that he is
retarded and should not be executed.
The
Florida Supreme Court refused last week to delay Bottoson's execution based
on the King stay from the U.S. Supreme Court. The state's high court also
rejected the argument that Bottoson can't be executed because he is
mentally retarded.
The
justices concluded that the trial judge who ruled that Bottoson was not
mentally retarded did so based on the evidence.
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