State: Court lifts stays in death penalty cases

When Marie Williams heard that the death warrant for her sister's killer had been reactivated Friday, she knew what was coming: a new round of frustrations.

"It's just bringing back old memories all the time. It's been 25 years," said Mrs. Williams, who lives in St. Petersburg. "It's just another one of those things that he'll get another appeal. That's what happened the last three times."

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday lifted a stay of execution it granted five months ago to Amos Lee King Jr., 47, for the 1977 rape and murder of Mrs. Williams' sister, Natalie "Tillie" Brady.

A Tarpon Springs widow, Mrs. Brady lived near the work-release center from which King escaped. He also stabbed a corrections officer 24 times and nearly killed him.

The Supreme Court on Friday also lifted a stay for Linroy Bottoson, 62, for killing the post master for Eatonville, north of Orlando.

This was the third reprieve King has received in the 25 years since the murder.

Gov. Jeb Bush signed King's death warrant in November, and the U.S. Supreme Court granted him a stay the day before his scheduled execution in January. He already had ordered his last meal.

Earlier in the week, the court found capital punishment laws in Arizona and four other states unconstitutional because judges, not juries, imposed death sentences. In Florida, juries recommend sentences in capital cases, but the judge makes the final decision.

King and Bottoson plan a new round of appeals, said Peter Cannon of Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, which represents death row inmates. The appeals largely will be based on the Supreme Court's decision in the Arizona case, he said.

"Now it's easier, because we know which issue to focus on," Cannon said.

Bush expressed sympathy for the victims' families and said the high court's action on Friday removed any "legal impediment" to the executions of King and Bottoson.

"Justice is long overdue for the families of Natalie Brady and Catherine Alexander, each of whom was murdered over 20 years ago," Bush said.

Bush spokeswoman Elizabeth Hirst said the Supreme Court decision in the Arizona case didn't affect the three Florida cases that had been stayed.

The Supreme Court's stay of two Florida executions earlier this year, plus Bush's decision a short time later to stay a third, effectively created a moratorium on the death penalty in Florida. That's over.

No execution dates have been set for King or Bottoson, and Bush has not yet moved ahead with the execution of Robert Trease, who was scheduled to die in February for the 1995 murder of Paul Edenson at St. Armand's Key in Sarasota.

Bottoson came within three hours of death by lethal injection in February for the murder of Catherine Alexander, the post master of Eatonville. Bottoson kidnapped the 74-year-old woman while robbing the post office of $144 and 37 money orders worth $400 each. He stabbed her 14 times and ran over her with his car.

King's 1977 crime shocked Tarpon Springs. He escaped from the Tarpon Springs Community Correctional Center and attacked Mrs. Brady in her secluded house nearby. King admits escaping from the facility and assaulting a security guard, but he denies raping and killing Mrs. Brady.

A jury recommended 12-0 that he be sentenced to death, and a judge agreed. King previously survived death warrants signed by Gov. Bob Graham in 1981 and Gov. Bob Martinez in 1988, and once came within a week of execution.

The relatives of King's victim, Tillie Brady, say they would rather not hear his name ever again. Eva Lysek, one of Mrs. Brady's sisters, doesn't care whether King lives or dies.

"I just do not want them to let him out," said Ms. Lysek, who lives in Pinellas County and still regularly puts flowers on her sister's grave on holidays. "All I can say is, I do not have a sister. I have not had a sister for 25 years."

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

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