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| Death Row Inmate Wins Third Reprieve |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 12/09/2002 |
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A federal appeals court issued a stay of execution November 26 for Amos King, who was scheduled to die this week for the murder of an elderly woman in central Florida 25 years ago. King won his third reprieve this year on the issue of whether a lawyer must be appointed to represent him in a clemency petition to the state. A second Florida man, Linroy Bottoson, however, is still scheduled to be executed Dec. 6 for the murder of another elderly woman in central Florida 23 years ago. King and Bottoson appealed to the nation's high court last week, asking it to find Florida's death sentencing law invalid as it did a similar Arizona law in June. But the issue that won King a reprieve is different. Federal law requires that death row inmates be appointed lawyers both for federal appeals and for clemency, Cleveland lawyer Michael Benza said. A federal judge in Tampa this summer rejected that argument and Benza, who is representing King on a volunteer basis, appealed that decision to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In a one-sentence order signed by Chief Judge J.L. Edmondson, the appeals court Tuesday morning stayed King's execution pending that appeal. A few hours later, lawyers for the state asked the U.S. Supreme Court to lift the stay. The court did not immediately act. King, 48, had been scheduled to die at 6 p.m. Monday. King was condemned for murdering Natalie Brady, 68, in her Tarpon Springs home in 1977 and setting the place ablaze after slipping away from a work-release prison. The clemency issue that has won King a reprieve does not apply to Bottoson because he is not represented by state lawyers, who are prohibited by state law from representing death row inmates in clemency hearings. Bottoson, 63, was convicted of killing Catherine Alexander, the Eatonville postmistress, in 1979. |
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There is a lot of information on this website about inmates and prison guards. I didn’t realize what was going on in our prison system until I discovered this website. Similarly, I didn’t understand litigation finance until I read more from Hamilton Lindley who is a litigation finance expert based in Texas.