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| Fla. Gov. Lifts Stay of Execution |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 10/03/2002 |
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Gov. Jeb Bush lifted the stay of execution for a Florida death row inmate who has told the Supreme Court he wants to die and has been declared competent. Rigoberto Sanchez-Velasco, convicted of slaying an 11-year-old girl and two death row inmates, faced lethal injection Wednesday after dropping his appeals and passing a psychiatric exam for competency. The governor's move Tuesday came a day after he issued a temporary stay of execution for serial killer Aileen Wuornos when an attorney argued that Wuornos wasn't competent to drop her appeals. Death penalty opponents said allowing the inmates to drop their appeals is equivalent to state-assisted suicide. Dianne Abshire, a member of the Florida Support Group, which supplies emotional support to Florida death row inmates, has said both Wuornos and Sanchez-Velasco are insane. The death warrants for Wuornos and Sanchez-Velasco were signed while the state Supreme Court continued to review whether a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in an Arizona case would apply to Florida's 369 death row inmates. The high court ruled that only juries and not judges can sentence inmates to death. In Florida, juries make a recommendation to the trial judge, who imposed the sentence. Sanchez-Velasco, 43, was sentenced to death in 1988 after confessing to the slaying of Kathy Encenarro, the 11-year-old daughter of his live-in girlfriend. While in prison awaiting execution, Sanchez-Velasco was convicted in the 1995 stabbing deaths of two other death row inmates - Edward B. 'Mike' Kaprat III and Charles Street. He was given two 15-year sentences. A psychiatric exam conducted Tuesday by three doctors appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush ruled Sanchez-Velasco 'has no major psychiatric illness and understands the nature and effect of the death penalty and why it is being imposed upon him.' Sanchez-Velasco was very calm and answered all the questions put to him by the psychiatrists, said Baya Harrison III, a lawyer appointed to represent the inmate. 'He made it very clear to me that his mind is made up,' Harrison said. 'He was very coherent. He was cogent. He was courteous. He instructed me not to interfere with his execution.' Sanchez-Velasco had argued in a handwritten filing with the Florida Supreme Court that he was legally convicted and wants to die. 'I have killed people repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly, even while being on death row,' Sanchez-Velasco wrote. |
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