Executions put on hold for now

The deaths of two Florida inmates are delayed amid signs a constitutional challenge in Arizona has sweeping effects.

By JAMIE JONES, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 6, 2002

STARKE -- The scheduled executions of two Florida death row inmates were put on hold Tuesday amid growing signs that a constitutional challenge to Arizona's death penalty law was spilling over into other states.

First, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a reprieve for Linroy Bottoson three hours before his scheduled 6 p.m. execution for the 1979 killing of Catherine Alexander, a 74-year-old Eatonville postmaster.

Later in the day, Gov. Jeb Bush said he would issue an executive order delaying the execution of Robert Trease, who was scheduled to die Thursday for the 1995 murder of Paul Edenson at St. Armand's Key in Sarasota. Bush cited the court's order in his decision.

"This is a judicially imposed moratorium on the death penalty in Florida," said death penalty opponent Michael Radelet, a Colorado sociology professor and leading authority on capital punishment in Florida.

Carolyn Snurkowski, who oversees criminal appeals for Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth, wouldn't take it as far. She said her office will continue litigation against death row inmates until the Supreme Court rules on the Arizona case.

"We have to just proceed as we would normally do," she said.

None of the other 370 people on Florida's death row has been scheduled for execution. A Bush spokeswoman said he hasn't decided whether to refrain from signing any new death warrants.

"We have not gotten to that point right now," Elizabeth Hirst said.

Just last month, the U.S. Supreme Court delayed a third Florida execution, that of Amos Lee King. He previously survived two death warrants for the 1977 rape and murder of Natalie "Tillie" Brady, a Tarpon Springs widow who lived near the work-release center King escaped from.

It has been more than a year since Florida executed a death row inmate. That was Robert Dewey Glock II, executed last January for the murder of Sharilyn Ritchie, a Manatee County schoolteacher.

The Arizona case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court makes further delays likely for Florida executions.

The legal issue at stake is a constitutional challenge to the power of judges to impose Arizona's capital punishment law. Arizona, Florida and several other states give judges -- rather than juries -- the power to impose death sentences.

Marty McClain, a lawyer who represents death row inmates, said the fact that Bush stopped the execution of Trease, who said he would not fight his death, indicates no other death warrants will be signed before a ruling.

"Bush recognized and obviously decided that with the state's death penalty statute under a cloud," he didn't want to go through with the Trease execution, McClain said.

The Supreme Court doesn't grant stays "willy nilly," McClain added. "This means the five justices think the person asking for a stay has a pretty good chance of prevailing."

Bush has presided over eight executions and signed 13 death warrants since taking office in 1999. He also signed laws last year extending access to DNA testing to death row inmates and barring the execution of mentally retarded people.

Radelet said the court's reprieve gives Florida voters a chance to revisit the state's capital punishment laws and decide whether they want death in the hands of judges or juries.

Until 1972, state law required a unanimous jury to impose death, he said. Currently, a jury makes a sentencing recommendation to a judge, who decides whether to follow it.

Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, said the Legislature will await the court's decision and respond accordingly.

"If we find there's a portion of our statutes that's out of line with the Constitution, then we will correct it," he said. "We're at a time when those who would oppose capital punishment are using every opportunity to shut down the process, and they're entitled to their day in court."

Bottoson, 62, had already finished his requested last meal of steamed shrimp, fried oysters, butter pecan ice cream and apple pie when the stay came.

"He was very relieved," said Bottoson's attorney, Peter Cannon, who was on his way to Starke when he got word from Washington.

Already at the state prison were four children of Alexander, a well-known member of the Eatonville community who sang alto in the church choir and was known around town as "Mama."

Alexander's family was "upset, depressed and disgusted," said Edward Snodderly, husband of Evelyn Banks, one of Alexander's children.

"All of them were hoping it would happen today so they could get on with their lives," Snodderly said.

Bottoson and his wife came under suspicion for Alexander's murder after they tried to cash money orders stolen from the post office. Police found hair samples and one of Alexander's fingernails in or on Bottoson's car.

Bottoson confessed to the murder, saying "demon spirits" had "got on me," his minister testified at trial.

In the latest round of appeals, Bottoson's attorneys have argued that he is retarded and should not be executed.

The Florida Supreme Court refused last week to delay Bottoson's execution based on the King stay from the U.S. Supreme Court. The state's high court also rejected the argument that Bottoson can't be executed because he is mentally retarded.

The justices concluded that the trial judge who ruled that Bottoson was not mentally retarded did so based on the evidence.

- Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

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