STARKE, Fla. -- A 38-year-old man condemned for the fatal stabbing of a housewife in 1983 was put to death in Florida's electric chair Friday in the state's first execution since the chair malfunctioned in May.
Anthony Bertolotti was pronounced dead at 7:07 p.m. EDT, two minutes after prison officials switched on the electric current. Officials said the state's electric chair performed without a problem.
Bertolotti's lawyers had failed to win an 11th hour stay from the U.S. Supreme Court, which previously had denied his appeals. A federal appeals court denied the stay request earlier Friday for the man condemned for killing Carol Ward, a housewife who let him in her home to use the telephone.
'I would like to say I leave with peace and love in my heart, no animosity,' Bertolotti said just before prison officials strapped him in the chair. 'For those I love, be strong and know that God is with them.'
He was the first Florida inmate to be put to death since the botched execution of Jesse Tafero. Flames shot from the chair's headpiece during Tafero's execution on May 4, and it took three separate surges of electricity before he was pronounced dead.
Officials later said a faulty sponge was to blame.
Three small puffs of smoke rose from the electrode on Bertolotti's leg as he was executed. Before the execution, prison officials smeared a white filmy conductive gel onto Bertolotti's shaved head and lower right leg, where the electrodes were attached.
Prison maintenance chief Ron Thornton took a sponge from a plastic peanut butter container, rung it out, dabbed it on a towel, placed it in the head electrode and then helped fasten it onto Bertolotti's head.
When the current began, no flame or smoke was visible from the headpiece.
Bertolotti, who was visibly reluctant as he was led into the hot, muggy death chamber by two guards, kept his eyes down except for six glances to his defense attorney Jerome Nickerson, who twice gave him a thumbs-up sign.
Bertlotti ate shrimp, macaroni and cheese, rolls and iced tea for his last meal, prison spokesman Bob Macmaster said. He was visited by one friend, Luann Begy of Ocoeo, Fla., and two attorneys.
Bertolotti was the 135th person executed in the United States and the 23rd in Florida since the Supreme Court lifted its ban on capital punishment in 1976. He was the 15th executed in the nation this year.
A handful of people gathered outside prison gates before the execution.
'I feel like Mr. Bertolotti deserves his life to think about what he's done,' Nancy Norelli, 28, an opponent of capital punishment and a third-year law student. Norelli cried as the sentence was carried out.
Larin Cone, 37, of Baldwin, Fla., who said his brother's killer is on death row, disagreed. 'I think it (the death penalty) is fine and dandy. I think it's them that should suffer a bit,' he said. 'I think they ought to do it a little slower, myself.'
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta previously granted stays to three Florida inmates after lawyers for the condemned argued that the state's electric chair was not in good working order. It was not clear what impact Bertolotti's execution would have on their appeals.
The state tested the chair earlier this week and sent the results to the appeals panel, which denied Bertolotti's request after oral arguments Friday morning.
Gov. Bob Martinez said Bertolotti's death should put capital punishment back on track in Florida.
'As a result of today's court rulings, Florida should now be able to resume carrying out its capital punishment statute,' he said. 'It is gratifying that the courts concluded Florida's electric chair does in fact work as it is designed to. That fact was borne out by extensive testing earlier this week, and the completion of this execution proves it conclusively.'
Bertolotti was sentenced for the Sept. 27, 1983, murder of Ward in Orlando. According to court records, he approached her while she was working in her yard and asked permission to use her telephone.
She allowed him inside her house, where he armed himself with a knife and robbed her of $30. Ward tried to persuade Bertolotti to put down the knife, but he became angry and started stabbing her, the court records said.
At some point, according to the court records, the first knife broke, so Bertolotti got another one and continued to stab her until she died. An autopsy found 14 separate stab wounds in the woman's body and also revealed sexual intercourse at some point during or after the attack.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta previously halted three Florida executions because of arguments from defense attorneys that the state's electric chair was possibly not in good working order.
But the state tested the chair earlier this week and sent the results to the appeals panel, which denied Bertolotti's request after oral arguments Friday morning.
Prison officials blamed the flames on a bad sponge in the chair's headpiece. The sponge is soaked in salt water and acts as an electrical conductor, but before Tafero's execution the natural sponge inside was changed to a synthetic one.
The three-legged electric chair, including the synthetic sponge, was tested earlier this week and pronounced by experts to be in fine working order.
Like attorneys for death row inmates in the three stays granted by the 11th Circuit Court, Bertolotti's lawyers contended the state's electric chair is broken and would impose cruel and unusual punishment.
Bertolotti was sentenced for the Sept. 27, 1983, murder of Carol Ward in Orlando. According to court records, he approached her while she was working in her yard and asked permission to use her telephone.
She allowed him inside her house, where he armed himself with a knife and robbed her of $30. Ward tried to persuade Bertolotti to put down the knife, but he became angry and started stabbing her, the court records said.
At some point, according to the court records, the first knife broke, so Bertolotti got another one and continued to stab her until she died. An autopsy found 14 separate stab wounds in the woman's body and also revealed sexual intercourse at some point during or after the attack.
