Ex-Sweetwater Cop Loses Death Row Appeal
TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/AP) – A former South Florida cop convicted of killing nine people more than two decades ago is one step closer to his execution.
On Tuesday, the seven justices of the state's Supreme Court unanimously ruled against Manuel Pardo Jr.'s appeal.
Pardo's lawyers argued the 56-year-old ex-Sweetwater officer was insane at the time of the 1986 killings and incompetent to stand trial.
Pardo confessed to the killings, saying the victims were drug dealers who "have no right to live."
Pardo was dubbed the "Death Row Romeo" in the 1990s. He placed lonely-hearts ads in tabloids, carried on torrid correspondence with vulnerable women and then scammed them out of hundreds or thousands of dollars.
Pardo is scheduled to be executed on December 11th.
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