Mental questions delay 2 killers' executions

Gov. Jeb Bush said he granted the stays so the convicts' competencies could be examined.

By ALISA ULFERTS, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published October 1, 2002

TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush temporarily stayed the executions of two convicted killers Monday over concerns about their mental competence.

A panel of psychiatrists is scheduled today to examine Rigoberto Sanchez-Velasco, scheduled to die by lethal injection Wednesday, and serial killer Aileen Wuornos, whose execution is scheduled for next week.

The executions could go on as planned if the doctors find the inmates competent. But Bush said the concerns of Wuornos' attorney and a friend of Sanchez-Velasco left him little choice but to delay the executions. Florida law requires that inmates understand the finality of the death sentence and why it was imposed on them.

"By law and by good conscience, I think it's important to have a panel established to determine their mental condition," Bush said.

The executive orders Bush signed Monday directed the psychiatrists to examine Sanchez-Velasco this morning and report their findings by 5 p.m. Wuornos will be examined this afternoon and findings reported within 48 hours.

Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, an anti-death penalty group, said that's not enough time.

"The timing of these executions demonstrates a clear political motivation, as does the strict limitation of time imposed upon the professional evaluators assigned to examine Mr. Sanchez-Velasco," the group said in a statement.

The Florida Supreme Court has upheld rulings that the two killers were competent to fire their attorneys and waive further appeals.

Wuornos, 46, was convicted of fatally shooting six men she picked up hitchhiking along highways in Volusia, Marion, Citrus, Pasco and Dixie counties. She is one of three women on Florida's death row. Her story has been portrayed in two movies, three books and an opera.

But Wuornos has accused prison guards of harassing to drive her to suicide. In a 25-page handwritten filing, she accused the prison staff of tainting her food, spitting on it and serving potatoes cooked in dirt. An attorney appointed to represent Wuornos in a lawsuit said he thinks she is mentally unsound.

"Based upon the totality of my contacts with Ms. Wuornos, I have grave doubts about her mental condition and specifically whether she is competent to be executed," Fort Lauderdale attorney Raag Singhal wrote the Supreme Court on Sept. 17. He said Wuornos has refused contact with him.

Bush said he learned Sept. 25 that Wuornos may be insane and on Sept. 27 that a friend of Sanchez-Velasco had asked the state Supreme Court to allow her to argue Sanchez-Velasco's insanity on his behalf. The court refused that motion Monday.

Sanchez-Velasco, 43, fled to Miami from Cuba in the 1980 Mariel boatlift. He was sentenced to death for the December 1986 murder of Kathy Encenarro, the 11-year-old daughter of his live-in girlfriend, Marta Molina.

Sanchez-Velasco wrote Gov. Lawton Chiles in 1994 seeking to end his appeals. The next year, he fatally stabbed two other death row inmates, Edward B. "Mike" Kaprat III and Charles Street. He was given 15-year sentences for each.

-- Times staff writer Steve Bousquet contributed to this report, which contains information from the Associated Press.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright