TALLAHASSEE, FL — Florida state attorneys say the execution of a man with symptoms of Parkinson’s disease should not be delayed despite his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the state’s lethal injection procedures.
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody argued that Loran Cole waited too long to allege that the drug cocktail in Florida was likely to cause him “unnecessary pain and suffering” because of symptoms caused by his Parkinson’s disease.
“Cole knew for at least seven years that he had symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, but delayed filing a claim challenging the lethal injection administered to him until after his death warrant was signed. Nothing stopped him from doing so,” Moody’s office said in a court filing Tuesday.
Cole, 57, is expected to executed at 6 p.m. on Thursday at the Florida State Prison. Governor Ron DeSantis signed his death sentence in July. Cole was convicted of kidnapping adult siblings camping in the Ocala National Forest in 1994, raping the sister and murdering the brother.
Cole has filed a motion with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking a stay of execution, arguing that the denial of a hearing violates his rights to due process and equal protection under the 14th Amendment.
“Cole’s Parkinson’s symptoms make it impossible for Florida to carry out his execution in a safe and humane manner because his involuntary body movements will affect the placement of the intravenous lines necessary to carry out an execution by lethal injection,” his attorneys argued in court documents.
Many of Florida’s death penalty proceedings are exempt from public registers. Failed executions in other states have led to an increase strict supervision of the death penalty and the secrecy surrounding it, and officials have struggled to provide the necessary drugs And staff to manage them.
On August 23, the Florida Supreme Court refused an appeal by Cole, who has also argued that his execution should be blocked because he was abused at a state-run juvenile detention center where boys were held for decades beaten, raped and murdered.
___ Kate Payne is a staff member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-reported issues.