Tyrone N. Butts
APE Reporter
Clarence Hill
Robber who killed Pensacola officer in 1982 set for execution
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) - Condemned inmate Clarence Hill, scheduled to die Tuesday for the 1982 slaying of a Pensacola police officer during a bank holdup, pressed his fight Monday to stop his execution.
Hill lost an appeal in federal court in Tallahassee Saturday and had two appeals pending with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta and one with the U.S. Supreme Court, but none had ruled by closing time Monday, said Hill's lawyer, D. Todd Doss.
"I guess it's going to
be one of those that goes down to the wire," Doss said.
Hill's appeals have contended Florid
a's
lethal injection method, which uses three chemicals, is cruel and unusual punishment because it causes pain.
Florida Assistant Deputy Attorney General Carolyn Snurkowski said the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against inmates in four other states on the same grounds.
Hill, who is scheduled to die at Florida State Prison in Starke at 6 p.m. EST, also claimed he should not be executed since he is mentally retarded. That argument was rejected by the state Supreme Court, which noted that a mental evaluation of Hill showed he was mildly retarded and his IQ was 16 points higher than the standard of 70 or below.
Hill, 48, who has converted to Islam and taken the name Razzaq Muhammad, says on a Web site, www.survivingthesystem.com, that he a
nd h
is friend, Cliff Jackson, both of Mobile, Ala., were high on marijuana, cocaine and beer when they decided to steal a car and drive to Pensacola, where thy held u
p th
e Freedom Federal Savings Bank.
A teller tripped an alarm. Pensacola police Officer Stephen Taylor, 26, and his partner, Larry Bailly, responded, stopping Jackson as he ran outside. Hill came up behind Taylor and shot him in the back from point-blank range, killing him. He also shot Bailly, who returned fire, hitting Hill several times. Jackson was shot by another officer as he tried to flee. All three survived.
On the Web site, Hill claimed he does not remember shooting the officers.
"I didn't see anyone get shot at any time," he wrote. "I'm pleased my friend is alive, and very sorry for the police officer who died and the one who was shot. I am not saying I am all innocent. I know I did a lot of things wrong
that da
y which I am not proud of, and I wish I could begin October 19th, 1982 all over again. I would spend it with Allah with the love and knowledge I have today."
Florida's execution procedure is
patterned
after the lethal injection process used by other states. Strapped to a gurney, inmates are given three drugs. The first deadens the pain, followed by injections to paralyze the body and the third to cause a fatal heart attack.
The state Supreme Court, by a 6-1 vote, rejected a request for a hearing on a 2005 study that concluded that the painkiller may wear off before the inmate dies.
The court ruled earlier this month that the study by Dr. David A. Lubarsky, chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Miami, was inconclusive.
Taylor's first cousin, Gary Mace, plans to watch the execution with Taylor's brother, Jack Taylor Jr., and Taylor's sister, Linda Knouse. Two other sisters will be unable to attend, Mace said.<
/b>
<
b>"It is something we have to carry through for Steve," Mace said Monday. "I have forgiven Mr. Hill for what he had done, but God is the one who has to judge. I do feel compassion for his family. It is two families
brought together
by tragedy."
Taylor's partner, Bailly, through the Pensacola Police Department, refused to comment on the execution.
Hill's accomplice, Jackson, was sentenced to life in prison.
If Hill is unable to get a last-minute stay, he would be the 61st inmate executed in Florida since 1976, when executions resumed after a 12-year moratorium, and the 257th since 1924, when the state took that duty from individual counties.
Hill's death is one of two scheduled this month, after the state executed only one inmate in 2005. Arthur D. Rutherford, who is scheduled to die on Jan. 31, also challenged the state's use of the execution drugs.
Rutherford, 56, killed 6
3-year-old Stell
a Salamon at her home in Santa Rosa County in 1985. Rutherford had done some repair work for the woman, whose body was found submerged in her bathtub, where she had been drowned or asphyxiated.
Hill survived a death warrant signed in 1989 by Gov. Bob Martinez. He is on
e of about three dozen i
nmates still alive after having previous warrants signed more than a decade ago.
Hill has not been a model prisoner in his years on death row, receiving disciplinary actions for possession of contraband, fighting, disobeying officers, possession of unauthorized beverages and defacing state property.
************
Die, nigger, DIE!
T.N.B.
Robber who killed Pensacola officer in 1982 set for execution
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) - Condemned inmate Clarence Hill, scheduled to die Tuesday for the 1982 slaying of a Pensacola police officer during a bank holdup, pressed his fight Monday to stop his execution.
Hill lost an appeal in federal court in Tallahassee Saturday and had two appeals pending with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta and one with the U.S. Supreme Court, but none had ruled by closing time Monday, said Hill's lawyer, D. Todd Doss.
"I guess it's going to
be one of those that goes down to the wire," Doss said.
Hill's appeals have contended Florid
a's
lethal injection method, which uses three chemicals, is cruel and unusual punishment because it causes pain.
Florida Assistant Deputy Attorney General Carolyn Snurkowski said the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against inmates in four other states on the same grounds.
Hill, who is scheduled to die at Florida State Prison in Starke at 6 p.m. EST, also claimed he should not be executed since he is mentally retarded. That argument was rejected by the state Supreme Court, which noted that a mental evaluation of Hill showed he was mildly retarded and his IQ was 16 points higher than the standard of 70 or below.
Hill, 48, who has converted to Islam and taken the name Razzaq Muhammad, says on a Web site, www.survivingthesystem.com, that he a
nd h
is friend, Cliff Jackson, both of Mobile, Ala., were high on marijuana, cocaine and beer when they decided to steal a car and drive to Pensacola, where thy held u
p th
e Freedom Federal Savings Bank.
A teller tripped an alarm. Pensacola police Officer Stephen Taylor, 26, and his partner, Larry Bailly, responded, stopping Jackson as he ran outside. Hill came up behind Taylor and shot him in the back from point-blank range, killing him. He also shot Bailly, who returned fire, hitting Hill several times. Jackson was shot by another officer as he tried to flee. All three survived.
On the Web site, Hill claimed he does not remember shooting the officers.
"I didn't see anyone get shot at any time," he wrote. "I'm pleased my friend is alive, and very sorry for the police officer who died and the one who was shot. I am not saying I am all innocent. I know I did a lot of things wrong
that da
y which I am not proud of, and I wish I could begin October 19th, 1982 all over again. I would spend it with Allah with the love and knowledge I have today."
Florida's execution procedure is
patterned
after the lethal injection process used by other states. Strapped to a gurney, inmates are given three drugs. The first deadens the pain, followed by injections to paralyze the body and the third to cause a fatal heart attack.
The state Supreme Court, by a 6-1 vote, rejected a request for a hearing on a 2005 study that concluded that the painkiller may wear off before the inmate dies.
The court ruled earlier this month that the study by Dr. David A. Lubarsky, chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Miami, was inconclusive.
Taylor's first cousin, Gary Mace, plans to watch the execution with Taylor's brother, Jack Taylor Jr., and Taylor's sister, Linda Knouse. Two other sisters will be unable to attend, Mace said.<
/b>
<
b>"It is something we have to carry through for Steve," Mace said Monday. "I have forgiven Mr. Hill for what he had done, but God is the one who has to judge. I do feel compassion for his family. It is two families
brought together
by tragedy."
Taylor's partner, Bailly, through the Pensacola Police Department, refused to comment on the execution.
Hill's accomplice, Jackson, was sentenced to life in prison.
If Hill is unable to get a last-minute stay, he would be the 61st inmate executed in Florida since 1976, when executions resumed after a 12-year moratorium, and the 257th since 1924, when the state took that duty from individual counties.
Hill's death is one of two scheduled this month, after the state executed only one inmate in 2005. Arthur D. Rutherford, who is scheduled to die on Jan. 31, also challenged the state's use of the execution drugs.
Rutherford, 56, killed 6
3-year-old Stell
a Salamon at her home in Santa Rosa County in 1985. Rutherford had done some repair work for the woman, whose body was found submerged in her bathtub, where she had been drowned or asphyxiated.
Hill survived a death warrant signed in 1989 by Gov. Bob Martinez. He is on
e of about three dozen i
nmates still alive after having previous warrants signed more than a decade ago.
Hill has not been a model prisoner in his years on death row, receiving disciplinary actions for possession of contraband, fighting, disobeying officers, possession of unauthorized beverages and defacing state property.
************
Die, nigger, DIE!
T.N.B.
