Stephen Hudak
Sentinel Staff Writer
September 20, 2008
Lawyers for Richard Henyard turned to the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday, hoping to stop the Eustis man's impending execution.
Henyard, 34, is scheduled to die Tuesday by lethal injection for the 1993 murders of two Lake County girls, Jamilya Lewis, 7, and her sister, Jasmine Lewis, 3.
They were carjacked with their mother from a Winn-Dixie parking lot. Their mother was raped in their presence and shot four times but survived.
Mark S. Gruber, who has handled Henyard's appeals, filed a petition with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas asking for a stay of execution.
Gruber had asked the nation's highest court on Thursday to issue a writ of certiorari, an order that would require the court to schedule briefs and oral arguments but not necessarily halt the execution.
Gruber, who works in Tampa for the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, argued that the Florida Supreme Court has violated Henyard's right to due process by prohibiting the condemned man's publicly funded lawyers from challenging the state's lethal-injection method of execution.
Four of the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices must agree to grant the review.
A review of Gruber's filings shows he would like to challenge the constitutionality of lethal injection, the confidentiality of the executioners and the Florida Supreme Court's interpretation of a law forbidding death-row lawyers from "engaging in civil litigation" on behalf of death-row inmates.
He pointed out that Florida suspended executions following the botched execution of Angel Diaz, 55, on Dec. 13, 2006.
After a governor's commission reviewed and revised the state's procedures, Florida resumed executions on July 1, 2008, with child-killer Mark Dean Schwab the first to be strapped to the gurney.
The U.S. Supreme Court did not immediately rule on Gruber's filing.
The high court grants fewer than 2 percent of such requests.
Stephen Hudak can be reached at shudak@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5930.
Sentinel Staff Writer
September 20, 2008
Lawyers for Richard Henyard turned to the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday, hoping to stop the Eustis man's impending execution.
Henyard, 34, is scheduled to die Tuesday by lethal injection for the 1993 murders of two Lake County girls, Jamilya Lewis, 7, and her sister, Jasmine Lewis, 3.
They were carjacked with their mother from a Winn-Dixie parking lot. Their mother was raped in their presence and shot four times but survived.
Mark S. Gruber, who has handled Henyard's appeals, filed a petition with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas asking for a stay of execution.
Gruber had asked the nation's highest court on Thursday to issue a writ of certiorari, an order that would require the court to schedule briefs and oral arguments but not necessarily halt the execution.
Gruber, who works in Tampa for the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, argued that the Florida Supreme Court has violated Henyard's right to due process by prohibiting the condemned man's publicly funded lawyers from challenging the state's lethal-injection method of execution.
Four of the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices must agree to grant the review.
A review of Gruber's filings shows he would like to challenge the constitutionality of lethal injection, the confidentiality of the executioners and the Florida Supreme Court's interpretation of a law forbidding death-row lawyers from "engaging in civil litigation" on behalf of death-row inmates.
He pointed out that Florida suspended executions following the botched execution of Angel Diaz, 55, on Dec. 13, 2006.
After a governor's commission reviewed and revised the state's procedures, Florida resumed executions on July 1, 2008, with child-killer Mark Dean Schwab the first to be strapped to the gurney.
The U.S. Supreme Court did not immediately rule on Gruber's filing.
The high court grants fewer than 2 percent of such requests.
Stephen Hudak can be reached at shudak@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5930.
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1 comment:
Gov. Charlie Crist YOU ARE HORRIBLY WRONG in condemning such a MENTALLY-ILL FLORIDA INMATE TO DEATH for the following reasons...
"Recent research concerning emotional development points to the fact that Mr Henyard's mental and emotional deficits have produced a disability within him which is identical to mental retardation in its disabling features. This was not been taken into account by the court when imposing a death sentence on this man. At the time of the murder of both Jamilya, 7, and Jasmine, 3, Lewis, and the rape of their mother, Dorothy Lewis, evidence points to the fact that Henyard was sufferring from a neurological impairment which rendered his social and cognitive skills impaired."
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