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The Nation - News from March 6, 1985

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The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for a convicted child killer to die in Florida’s electric chair this morning, while a federal judge in a lower court indefinitely postponed a second execution scheduled in that state today, that of convicted killer William Middleton Jr. The high court, by a 5-3 vote, rejected an emergency request to spare the life of John Paul Witt, 42, who was sentenced to death for the Oct. 28, 1973, murder of Jonathon Kusher, 11. Prosecutors said Witt, then 30, and a friend sexually abused and mutilated the corpse.

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