http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=3&u=/nm/20040525/ts_nm/execution_florida_dc

Gosh if every lifer did this we'd cut down on the population quickly......

Fla. to Execute Man Who Killed to Escape Life Term


By Michael Peltier


TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Reuters) - Exactly 25 years after resuming capital punishment, Florida prepared on Tuesday to execute a man who murdered a cellmate because he preferred death to the life sentence he was serving for another crime.



Barring a last-minute reprieve, John Blackwelder, 49, will be given a lethal dose of drugs shortly after 6 p.m. EDT at Florida State Prison near Starke for the 2000 murder of Raymond Wigley.


Death penalty opponents said prison officials are carrying out a suicidal wish from a man who does not want to spend a lifetime behind bars. Blackwelder has said he killed Wigley, also serving a life sentence, to force the state's hand.


Blackwelder had been sentenced to life without parole for sexually assaulting a 10-year-old. He says he was innocent of assaulting the boy.


Blackwelder said during a pre-sentencing hearing that he knew what he was doing when he strangled Wigley and that if he returned to prison he would kill "as many times as necessary" to be put to death.


Wigley was convicted of raping, torturing and murdering 47-year-old Adella Maria Simmons in 1983.


"The point is I know how I am," Blackwelder said. "I'm stuck in prison the rest of my life. There's no way of getting out. I'm not being in there. I can't handle it."


Prison spokesman Sterling Ivey said Blackwelder reiterated that stance to reporters on Monday.


'VOLUNTEER' FOR DEATH PENALTY


Death penalty critics said Blackwelder is the seventh Florida prisoner to "volunteer" for execution in recent years. Others, including serial killer Aileen Wournos and anti-abortion activists Paul Hill, dropped appeals guaranteed under Florida's death penalty statute.


Blackwelder's execution comes 25 years after May 25, 1979, when John Spenkelink became the first prisoner Florida put to death after the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) lifted a ban on capital punishment.


Blackwelder would be the 59th prisoner executed in Florida since then.


Abe Bonowitz, executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said Blackwelder's execution would set another dangerous precedent.


"The message goes out to every lifer in the state," Bonowitz said. "If you don't like your life in prison, kill a prison worker or kill a fellow inmate and the state will assist in your suicide."


A spokesman for Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said there was "no connection" to the anniversary. Bush signed a death warrant last month giving prison officials a window of several days to carry out the sentence.


A total of 910 executions have taken place in the United States since the U.S. Supreme Court approved the constitutionality of the death penalty in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.


Texas, with 322, has the most among the 38 states with the death penalty, followed by Virginia's 91, Oklahoma's 73, Missouri's 61, and 58 in Florida.

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

You got my vote. Although to make it fair, you would have to guarantee rooming together a lifer with a lifer.

Hate to see a life kill a short-timer just 'cause he doesn't like his prospects.

Thanks

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Enough about me, how are you doing?

Too bad he didn't get what he wanted up front. He "had" to kill a fellow inmate to get attention. Reminds me of thsoe women who 'ask' men to rape them by the suggestive clothing some women wear.


This time I hope he gets his wish more expeditiously.

B

Person A wants to die for a serving a sentence for a crime he said he didn't commit. So, he kills someone else that did, as far as we know kill someone else. Why didn't he just kill himself? Instead he takes out another 'innocent' person costing the state $80,000 a year to house and feed. (Of course Person B's relatives will sue and get $387 millon for "negligence" but that comes out of another budget)
What if..... there was a mass murderer on death row?? We could just turn him loose and walla!!! problem solved!

You know, most lifers are probably pretty nice guys though. They've just been "deprived".