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Scott Reschedules Muhammad Execution After High Court Ruling
December 21, 2013
After an earlier execution date got postponed because of a legal challenge, Gov. Rick Scott on Friday rescheduled the execution of convicted murderer Askari Abdullah Muhammad for Jan. 7.
The move follows a unanimous Florida Supreme Court ruling on Thursday that the state’s new three-drug cocktail used to execute death row inmates does not violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Muhammad, who was formerly known as Thomas Knight, was initially convicted of kidnapping and killing Sydney and Lillian Gans in 1974. He also escaped from the Dade County Jail while awaiting trial and was involved in a liquor store robbery in Cordele, Ga., where two clerks were shot, with one killed.
On Thursday, the high court lifted a stay imposed Nov. 18 to prevent Muhammad’s execution, which had been scheduled for Dec. 3. Muhammad’s attorneys argued that William Frederick Happ, who was executed in October using a new anesthetic as part of the drug combination, had been conscious for an unusually long time during his execution and moved his head.
But in its ruling, the Supreme Court said the Department of Corrections’ rules for executions call for prisoners to be unconscious before the other drugs are used —- and that it presumed that the agency would follow its own procedures.
He will be put to death for fatally stabbing corrections Officer Richard James Burke with a sharpened spoon in October 1980, while Muhammad, now 62, was already on death row.
by The News Service of Florida
Comments
10 Responses to “Scott Reschedules Muhammad Execution After High Court Ruling”
Happy trails……..finally. Rest in peace, now, Officer Burke & other victims.
FORTY YEARS ON DEATH ROW??? That is cruel and unusual punishment for his victims families….let’s have some closure people….
This is what happens when you have a bunch of spineless, liberal judges running the court systems in this country.
He killed several people he don t deserve to live to live maybe his SK called God Allah will welcome him in his so called heaven
I guess the cruel and unusual punishment for the victims of death row scumbags doesn’t mean anything. Cruel and unusual punishment is allowing them to be on death row for years contemplating their death. A bullet to the back of the head would be quick with no question of any prolonged suffering by the scumbag criminals…
I totally agree with Melodies4us, why should they care if he is unconscious, the 4 people he killed were not & neither were their families. he’s been long over due.
to many bleeding hearts I wouldn’t care if he was thrown out of a airplane with no parachute. GET R DONE
Trying to understand this, the guy murders 3 people including a woman who he kidnapped, a man at his work and a guard in the prison and some lawyer is bothered that a previous inmate had “moved his head” during execution..?
So what.?
When did our lawmakers become more concerned about the comforts of the evil-doer than about the victims and their suffering.?
Firing squads seem to be much more quick and surely financially less costly.
May Allah receive him with open arms and none too soon.
Amen!
Why the hold up? He should have been killed in Oct. 1980 ?