| Advertisement |
Feb. 23 (UPI) -- The justices of the Supreme Court have paved the way for Florida to execute death row inmate Donald Dillbeck on Thursday, rejecting his request to intervene on the grounds that carrying out his sentence is unconstitutional. Dillbeck is scheduled die at 6 p.m. Thursday by lethal injection for the 1990 stabbing murder of Faye Vann.
Advertisement
The legal team for the 59-year-old death row inmate had petitioned the high court on Monday asking it to stay his execution and to review his case.
The attorneys argued that Dillbeck suffers from a neurobehavioral disorder associated with prenatal alcohol exposure and is exempt from capital punishment as those with intellectual disabilities are protected from the death penalty by the Eighth Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
They also said that his death would violate the Eighth Amendment that prohibits the execution of those not sentenced by a unanimous jury, as Dillbeck's sentence was finalized in 1995, after a divided jury recommended he receive the death penalty in an 8-4 vote.
"This court's intervention is urgently needed to prevent the imminent execution of Mr. Dillbeck, whom the evidence undisputedly shows is deserving of the protections from the death penalty provided by the Eight and14th Amendments," his council wrote in their application for a stay of execution.
The justices on Wednesday unanimously denied both the application for a stay of execution and a writ of certiorari. No opinion was made.
Dillbeck had taken his case to the Supreme Court after Florida's highest court last week rejected his request for a stay of execution and after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his death warrant on Jan. 23, days before he unveiled legislation to reduce the number of jurors required for a recommendation of death from unanimity to a supermajority of at least eight jurors.
The death row inmate's execution will be the first by Florida since it carried out the death sentence of Gary Ray Bowles in August of 2019, the longest span it has gone without holding an execution in decades.
He will also be the state's 100th executed inmate since Florida reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
Dillbeck had been sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years for fatally shooting 31-year-old Deputy Dwight Lynn Hall as a 15-year-old on June 6, 1979.
On June 22, 1990, while serving his sentence, Dillbeck escaped a minimum-security work detail. Court documents state he and other inmates were catering a function in Quincy, Fla., when left and walked to Tallahassee where he bought a knife.
Dillbeck used the knife on June 24 in a shopping mall parking lot as he attempted to carjack Vann and force her to drive him to Orlando where he had a friend.
Court documents state Vann fought back, and Dillbeck stabbed her multiple times.
In its response to Dillbeck's request for a writ of certiorari, the state of Florida said Vann was stabbed upwards of 25 times and had her windpipe severed.
Mall security chased Dillbeck who was later arrested by police.
Secular and religious anti-capital punishment advocates have been calling on DeSantis to stay Dillbeck's execution and commute his sentence to life without parole.
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty wrote to the Republican governor to take into consideration Dillbeck's confirmed medical diagnoses as well as the sexual abuse he suffered from his alcoholic mother, who, Dillbeck's counsel states in court documents, drank up to 24 beers every day of her pregnancy.
"In the decades since his 1990 crime, he has been committed to redemption," the organization wrote in the letter. "He as developed meaningful relationships with friends on the outside who still support him today. He found solace in prayer and meditation. He has had no violent incidents in the last three decades.
"Executing Donald won't make our state any safer."
On Feb. 6, the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops similarly asked DeSantis to stay Dillbeck's execution as the death penalty is "a violation of the dignity of the person and an indictment on the low value placed on human life itself in society."
"Please know that in staying Mr. Dillbeck's execution and commuting his sentence, you would have the support of the church and the many Floridians who support alternatives to the death penalty so that this cruel and unnecessary practice of state-sanctioned kill can end," Michael Sheedy, executive direct of the conference, wrote in the letter.
Amnesty International also called on the public earlier this month to protest Dillbeck's execution to the governor, stating the law that allowed only eight jurors to recommend the death penalty has since been found unconstitutional.
A vigil has been scheduled for 5 p.m. outside the Florida Sate Prison in Rainford, Fla., an hour prior to when Dillbeck is be put to death.
