Convicted child killer appeals execution

ORLANDO, Fla., Sept. 9 (UPI) -- Lawyers for a convicted child killer asked the Florida Supreme Court to stop his scheduled Sept. 23 execution by lethal injection.

Richard Henyard's lawyers appealed to the court Monday, saying their client's mental disabilities should rule him ineligible for the death penalty, the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel reported Tuesday.

Henyard, 34, and a co-defendant, Alfonza Smalls, were convicted of kidnapping Dorothy Lewis and her daughters, Jamilya, 7, and Jasmine, 3, in Eustis, Fla., in 1993. Lewis was raped and shot in front of her daughters before her daughters were killed, the Sentinel reported.

Lewis, who survived, told the Sentinel in July she opposed the death penalty for her attackers. Smalls, who was 14 at the time of the attacks, was found ineligible for the death penalty by virtue of his age and is serving consecutive life-in-prison terms.

Fifty-six inmates have been on Florida's death row a decade or longer than Henyard, who arrived there in August 1994, the Sentinel reported.