Three-Time Killer Dies by Injection

A three-time murderer who cheated death once when the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily banned executions was put to death by lethal injection for the stabbing death of a fellow prisoner. Bennie Demps, 49, was pronounced dead at 6:53 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke, a prison spokeswoman said. Demps had been sentenced to die for shooting to death R.N. Brinkworth and Celia Puhlik in 1971 in Lake County. But he was among 97 Florida condemned prisoners who ended up with life sentences when the high court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in 1972. The Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, two months before Demps killed prisoner Alfred Sturgis.