TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - A death row inmate condemned for the 1995 murder of a Jacksonville college student can fire his attorneys and stop his appeals, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

In a second capital case, the court rejected an appeal from a death row inmate who fatally shot a parole supervisor in Miami 22 years ago. But the justices left the door open for future appeals based on a mental retardation claim.

The court's decision in the Jacksonville case clears the way for Gov. Jeb Bush to set an execution date for Pressley Alston, who is on death row for the January 1995 murder of James Lee Coon.

Coon, 19, was kidnapped after he left University Medical Center where he had gone to visit his grandmother. Alston and an accomplice forced Coon to drive around before they killed him and stole his car - despite his pleas and prayers.

Alston, 32, started pushing to fire his state lawyers and represent himself in the summer of 1999. But after a hearing in July 2001, the trial judge determined that Alston was too mentally ill for his legal affairs to continue and the case was suspended.

Throughout 2002, Alston kept filing motions in the Supreme Court, most of which were dismissed.

"The vast majority of these filings alleged that the prosecutor in Alston's case prosecuted him in order to cover up a crime committed by a law enforcement officer and that Alston's prison guards are part of the conspiracy," the court wrote.

In late December 2002, the high court ordered the trial court to hold a hearing into Alston's competency and his request to fire his state lawyers and drop his appeals.

In March 2003, the trial judge found Alston competent and a few months later determined his request to fire his state lawyers and drop his appeals was "knowing, intelligent and voluntary."

Thursday the state Supreme Court upheld those decisions. The unsigned decision was unanimous although Justice Harry Lee Anstead concurred in the result only.

In a second capital case Thursday, the justices denied an appeal by Harry Phillips, 59, on death row for the August 1982 murder of Bjorn Svenson.

Svenson supervised parole officers on Phillips' case and several times warned Phillips about improper contact with the officers. Phillips' parole was revoked at one point and he was returned to prison for 20 months because of Svenson.

Although the court rejected Phillips' appeal on numerous issues, it said he was free to file another motion under procedures set up to make sure mentally retarded people are not executed.

Two years go, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that executing a mentally retarded person would violate the constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

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