Florida Executes Killer After Suit Fails to Halt Use of Electric Chair
A killer who had challenged Florida’s electric chair as cruel and unusual punishment after a malfunction caused flames to shoot from a condemned man’s head went to his death in the chair Tuesday.
There were no flames when Leo Jones, 47, was electrocuted for killing a police officer.
It was the second of four Florida executions scheduled over a nine-day period.
Jones’ lawyers objected to the 75-year-old chair, nicknamed “Old Sparky,” after the malfunction occurred during an execution in March 1997. The problem led to a yearlong halt in executions in Florida that ended Monday with the execution of serial killer Gerald Stano.
The Florida Supreme Court determined that use of the electric chair is not cruel and unusual punishment.
Jones was condemned for the 1981 slaying of Thomas Szafranski, who was shot in the head while sitting in his patrol car in Jacksonville.
Judy Buenoano is to be executed Monday for murdering her husband.
Twenty-four hours later, Daniel Remeta, 40, is set to die for the 1985 killing of a store clerk.
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