Execution delayed of man who wanted to die
TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) -- Florida postponed the execution Tuesday of a man who murdered a cellmate because he preferred death to the life sentence he was serving for another crime.
John Blackwelder, 49, had been scheduled to die by chemical injection at 6 p.m. ET at Florida State Prison near Starke for the 2000 murder of fellow prisoner Raymond Wigley.
But Gov. Jeb Bush delayed the execution for 24 hours after receiving a letter from another prisoner who claimed someone else had confessed to Wigley's murder.
The delay until Wednesday evening was granted "in abundance of caution" to allow the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the new claims, the governor's spokeswoman said.
Death penalty critics said Blackwelder is the seventh Florida prisoner to "volunteer" for execution in recent years. Others, including serial killer Aileen Wournos and anti-abortion activists Paul Hill, dropped appeals guaranteed under Florida's death penalty statute.
Tuesday marked the 25th anniversary of Florida's resumption of capital punishment. On May 25, 1979, John Spenkelink became the first prisoner Florida put to death after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a ban on capital punishment.
Blackwelder would be the 59th executed in Florida since then.
A spokesman for Bush said there was "no connection" to the anniversary. Bush signed a death warrant last month giving prison officials a window of several days to carry out the sentence.
Death penalty opponents said that in executing Blackwell prison officials would be carrying out a suicidal wish from a man who does not want to spend a lifetime behind bars.
Blackwelder has said he killed Wigley, also serving a life sentence, to force the state to execute him.
Blackwelder had been sentenced to life without parole for sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy and said he was innocent of that crime.
But he told a judge that he knew what he was doing when he strangled Wigley and that if he returned to prison he would kill "as many times as necessary" to be put to death.
"The point is I know how I am," Blackwelder said. "I'm stuck in prison the rest of my life. There's no way of getting out. I'm not being in there. I can't handle it."
Wigley was convicted of raping, torturing and murdering 47-year-old Adella Maria Simmons in 1983.
Death penalty critics said executing Blackwelder would set a dangerous precedent.
"The message goes out to every lifer in the state," said Abe Bonowitz, executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. "If you don't like your life in prison, kill a prison worker or kill a fellow inmate and the state will assist in your suicide."
A total of 910 executions have taken place in the United States since the U.S. Supreme Court approved the constitutionality of the death penalty in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Texas, with 322, has the most among the 38 states with the death penalty, followed by Virginia's 91, Oklahoma's 73, Missouri's 61, and 58 in Florida.
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