Miami Herald

FLORIDA: Death row inmate changes mind - Robert Trease, who once sought to waive appeals, now wants to fight his death sentence.

Robert Trease, 49, shot and slashed the throat of a Sarasota classic car dealer in 1995.

 Robert Trease was a day away from getting his wish, needles filled with poison, pumped into his bloodstream.

 But as the U.S. Supreme Court pondered decisions that could have had a ripple effect on death penalty laws everywhere, Gov. Jeb Bush issued a temporary stay.

 In the weeks since the February order, Trease, who once begged to have his arduous death-penalty appeals waived and put on the fast-track to execution, has changed his mind.

 Trease, 49, shot and slashed the throat of a Sarasota classic car dealer in 1995. He has backed down from his refusal of legal representation and hired two attorneys.

 They plan to ask the same Sarasota circuit judge who agreed with Trease to bar lawyers from filing appeals on Trease's behalf to reverse his opinion.

 State officials say no other death-row inmate has changed their mind after giving up appeals.

 "A judge needs to question him and say you can't keep going back and forth, but at the same time we have to remember appeals are not really about guilt or innocence but they are about a constitutional process," said Abe Bonowitz, director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

 If Circuit Judge Bob Bennett grants this latest request during a Sept. 27 hearing, Trease's execution could be delayed further. He could continue to live on death row as he files appeals to throw out his sentence.

 Neither Trease nor his attorneys, Mark Olive of Tallahassee nor Thomas Dunn of Atlanta, would comment for this article. A year ago, Trease made it clear that he was ready to die. He never acknowledged being guilty.

 "I'm not going to have an attorney," he said as he sat in Bennett's courtroom in May 2001.

 "I'm not going to change my mind. I've thought about this long and hard," Trease said. "I don't care to be here any longer, it's very simple. Yeah, I'm competent and I've had enough."

 Trease was convicted of shooting Paul Edenson in the head and slashing his throat three times during a botched robbery in Edenson's St. Armands Key home on Aug. 17, 1995.

 Trease, who has a lengthy, violent criminal record, came to Sarasota from Las Vegas. He maintains he didn't kill Edenson. At one point, he blamed the Mafia.

 About a month after Bennett granted Trease's request, Wendy Berger, assistant general counsel for the governor, wrote Trease a letter asking him to reconsider.

 Bush signed Trease's death warrant Nov. 19, and set the execution for Feb. 7. The Florida Supreme Court signed off on Trease's death wish on Dec. 5.

 When the execution was stayed on Feb. 6, Bush had cited as his reason the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to delay the execution of another Florida inmate, Linroy Bottoson.

 Since Trease, Bottoson and Amos King, a third inmate also set to die earlier this year, were granted stays, the Starke death chamber has been empty.

 King and Bottoson were set to be executed last week, but the Florida Supreme Court granted another round of reprieves. Their defense attorneys and others are arguing that the state's capital punishment law is unconstitutional.

 Chief Assistant State Attorney Dennis Nales, whose office prosecuted Trease, is working with the state attorney general's office in handling Trease's latest motion. It was filed in Sarasota last month.

 "The death penalty is in such a state right now that maybe somebody convinced him (Trease) to go for it," Nales said.

 Nales said he and Assistant Attorney General Robert Landry need to research similar cases in other states before determining what they will argue before Bennett in September.

 "The courts haven't had to face this before," Nales said. "I'm sure the court will make the appropriate ruling to give Mr. Trease the appellate rights he is afforded to."

 Linda Cohen, Edenson's sister, is disappointed that Trease's execution might be delayed for several years.

 "What am I going to do? I would like to see him die, but I'm not going to obsess about him," she said in a telephone interview from her New Jersey eyeglass shop.

 Landry and Nales wouldn't say whether they plan to argue that Trease shouldn't be granted the right to an appeals process, but Bonowitz said "it would be unconscionable to fight somebody who decides they want to avail themselves to the legal process."

 According to his court filing, Trease's lawyers say he has "substantial" constitutional claims challenging the validity of his convictions. Many of the claims focus on Trease being denied effective counsel and competent mental health experts during his criminal trial.

 It's unknown whether Olive and Dunn approached Trease or whether Trease contacted them.

 Olive is best known for representing Gerald Stano, a self-confessed serial killer who told authorities he murdered 41 women in Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Stano was executed in March 1998 for murdering a 17-year-old hitchhiker from Port Orange.