Florida Supreme Court refuses to block execution of inmate convicted in 1994 murder of FSU student
TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Supreme Court on Friday unanimously rejected an appeal by a Death Row inmate convicted of killing a Florida State University student three decades ago, likely setting in motion last-minute federal court appeals before a scheduled execution next week.
Attorneys for Loran Cole launched state court appeals after Gov. Ron DeSantis in late July signed a death warrant that would lead to Cole's execution Thursday at Florida State Prison.
The Supreme Court decision rejected a series of arguments, including claims related to abuse Cole suffered as a teenager at the state's notorious Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna.
Cole's attorneys contended the abuse at the now-shuttered reform school contributed to his behavior. They also pointed to a recently passed law that set up a compensation program for people who were abused at the Jackson County school and the Okeechobee School in South Florida, saying the law constituted "newly discovered evidence" that warranted a fresh look at Cole's death sentence.
The law, approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis, set aside $20 million for people who attended the schools between 1940 and 1975. Cole, who was 17 when he was sent to Dozier in 1984, would not be eligible for the compensation.
The Supreme Court, upholding an Aug. 8 decision by Marion County Circuit Judge Robert Hodges, said the new law "does not amount to newly discovered evidence" that would require another review.
"Indeed, we have routinely held that resolutions, consensus opinions, articles, research, and the like do not satisfy the standard," said the opinion shared by Chief Justice Carlos Muñiz and Justices Charles Canady, John Couriel, Renatha Francis Jamie Grosshans, Jorge Labarga and Meredith Sasso.
Cole's lawyers for years have argued that his six-month stint at Dozier played a role in the behavior that led to the 1994 murder of Florida State student John Edwards, who was on a camping trip in the Ocala National Forest.
But the 2024 law added a new twist to the legal pleadings, with Cole's lawyers arguing the compensation program showed that the state admitted it was "complicit" in the mistreatment of students at the reform schools.
Cole said he was raped by a guard, beaten at least twice a week and had both of his legs broken after trying to escape during his six-month stint at Dozier, court documents dating back more than a decade said.
"That horrible place helped create the Loran Cole who sits on Death Row today," his lawyers argued in an appeal filed at the Supreme Court in 2011.
But Friday's ruling said that Cole's claims about the school were not new and were procedurally barred from being raised years after a court deadline for such arguments.
"The state of Florida's decision to now compensate some of those individuals who attended the school does not revive Cole's previously denied postconviction claims," the opinion said.
Court filings contended Cole suppressed memories of his experiences at Dozier, with the memories resurfacing after he watched a documentary in 2009 about abuse at the school.
But Friday's ruling disputed the suppressed-memories argument, pointing to Hodges' ruling, which found that the Dozier issue was raised in an "investigation report" before a jury's unanimous death-sentence recommendation in 1995.
Death-penalty opponents, however, have said Cole's trauma at Dozier deserves another look.
"It's concerning that the state has recognized, through recent legislation, the horrors of what occurred at Dozier but, at the same time, seeks to proceed with executing Cole without allowing him an opportunity to litigate his claims based on the abuse he endured at Dozier. The court's ruling today gets the state one step closer to being able to complete Cole's execution," Melanie Kalmanson, an attorney and author of the "Tracking Florida's Death Penalty" blog, told the News Service of Florida on Friday.
Justices also rejected arguments related to Cole's symptoms of Parkinson's disease, which his lawyers said could lead to "needless pain and suffering" during the triple-drug lethal injection process.
"Cole's Parkinson's symptoms will make it impossible for Florida to safely and humanely carry out his execution because his involuntary body movements will affect the placement of the intravenous lines necessary to carry out an execution by lethal injection," a brief filed by Cole's lawyers said.
But the Supreme Court ruling said Cole, 57, who has suffered from Parkinson's since at least 2017, "failed to raise any argument related to the method of execution until after the governor signed a death warrant" on July 29.
"Regardless, Cole's claim is meritless," the decision said.
Florida's lethal injection protocol requires the intravenous administration of three drugs: a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart from beating.
Cole's appeal did not meet the threshold requirements of establishing "that the method of execution presents a substantial and imminent risk that is sure or very likely to cause serious illness and needless suffering," the Supreme Court ruling said.
"We have already rejected challenges to the … protocol based upon the possibility of involuntary movements," the ruling said. "And we have repeatedly recognized that the Department of Corrections is entitled to the presumption that it will comply with the lethal injection protocol. … That protocol includes safeguards to ensure the condemned is unconscious throughout the execution."
Cole was sentenced to death in the February 1994 murder of Edwards, who went to the Ocala National Forest to camp with his sister, a student at Eckerd College, court records show.
Cole and another man, William Paul, joined the brother and sister at their campsite. After they decided to walk to a pond, Cole knocked Edwards' sister to the ground and ultimately handcuffed her, the records said. Paul took the sister up a trail, and John Edwards died from a slashed throat and blows to the head that fractured his skull, according to the court records. Edwards' sister was sexually assaulted and was tied to two trees the next morning before freeing herself. (In most cases, The News Service of Florida does not identify sexual assault victims by name.)