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Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Florida carried out its third execution since resuming lethal injections in August -- putting to death a man convicted of killing two men in 1991. Patrick Charles Hannon, 53, was pronounced dead at 8:50 p.m. Wednesday, after the U.S. Supreme Court delayed the execution by nearly 3 hours, the office of Gov. Rick Scott said.
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Hannon's lawyers had filed a request to the court for a stay of execution just before it was supposed to begin, but the appeal was ultimately rejected.
Hannon spent 26 years on death row. A jury unanimously said he should die for his role in the deaths of roommates Brandon Snider, 27, and Robert Carter, 28.
Hannon and two accomplices -- Ronald Ivan Richardson and James Acker -- killed the men in an apartment near University of South Florida in Tampa, Fla.
Investigators said they targeted Snider for threatening Acker's sister. Court records indicate Acker stabbed Snider 14 times and Hannon slit his throat. Hannon then shot Carter six times in the chest.
Richardson served a five-year prison sentence for an accessory conviction and Acker received life in prison plus 22 years.
Amnesty International said the disparity in sentencing among the three men highlight a lack of fairness in the legal system. The human rights organization issued a news release about Hannon's execution, as well as two others this week in Texas and Arkansas.
"Three states are set to put prisoners to death this week, and every single one of these cases raises disturbing questions about the fairness of the legal proceedings that put them on death row," said Kristina Roth, Amnesty International USA's senior program officer for criminal justice programs. "These cases show that there is no justifiable way for the state to put a prisoner to death. The death penalty system is irrevocably broken and should be done away with for good."
Florida resumed executions Aug. 24 after an 18-month moratorium over a new execution law that requires a jury to unanimously vote for a death sentence.
