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Execution delayed for man who killed officer

The U.S. Supreme Court rejects one of the bank robber's appeals but is studying two others.

STARKE - The execution of death row inmate Clarence Hill, who murdered Pensacola police Officer Stephen Taylor 23 years ago, was delayed Tuesday after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a last-minute stay.

Hill has claimed in appeals that he should not be executed because he is mentally retarded and that the state's lethal injection procedure amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

It was unclear how much time the justices would need to review three separate stay requests, but Robby Cunningham, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Corrections, said Tuesday evening, "The court will not rule until tomorrow."

Later Tuesday night, the Supreme Court rejected one of Hill's three appeals but did not act on the remaining two.

Hill's execution had been scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday. Twenty-nine witnesses were gathered for more than an hour in an observation room at the Florida State Prison, separated from the execution chamber by a window over which a curtain remained drawn. The witnesses, including Florida Senate President Tom Lee and several of Taylor's relatives, were sent home after Justice Anthony M. Kennedy filed paperwork that said Hill's death sentence would "be stayed pending further order" of the justices.

"I'm very relieved at this point," said D. Todd Doss, Hill's defense attorney. "The important thing is, he's still alive tonight."

Earlier Tuesday, Hill, 48, had lost appeals at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. He lost his appeal to the state Supreme Court last week.

Hill, who became a Muslim in prison, had received farewell visits from a friend, Serena Mangano of Modena, Italy, and a spiritual adviser. The day before, his three sisters and a brother visited him.

He did not request a final meal Tuesday and refused the late-morning meal served to other inmates: glazed ham, fruit glaze, greens, black-eyed peas, coleslaw, bread, a cookie and tea, according to Department of Corrections spokeswoman Debbie Buchanan.

Hill, from Mobile, Ala., was condemned for the Oct. 19, 1982, gun slaying of Pensacola police Officer Taylor, 26, and the wounding of his partner, Larry Bailly, when they responded to a silent alarm of a bank robbery. Hill's accomplice, Cliff Jackson, also of Mobile, was sentenced to life in prison.

One of Hill's appeals contended that the lethal injection method used in Florida and several other states is cruel. He based that on a University of Miami doctor's study published last year, which concluded that the first of three chemicals administered, a painkiller, may wear off after the second, a paralyzing chemical, is given and before the third, one that causes a fatal heart attack, completely takes effect. The state Supreme Court rejected that appeal, saying the study was inconclusive.

Hill's claim that he is mentally retarded also was rejected by the state Supreme Court.

Hill's execution was to have been one of two scheduled this month. Arthur D. Rutherford, 56, who is scheduled to die on Jan. 31 for killing Stella Salamon, 63, at her home in Santa Rosa County in 1985, also has challenged the state's use of the execution drugs.

[Last modified January 25, 2006, 00:54:10]