Miami-Dade Mass Murderer Executed
STARKE (AP) — A Miami-Dade man accused of killing eight people in two separate incidents died Monday by lethal injection at Florida State Prison.
John Errol Ferguson was declared dead at 6:17 p.m.
Ferguson, 65, was convicted of killing six people died in a drug related, execution-style mass killing in Carol City in 1977. Six months later, Ferguson abducted and killed two teens who had left a Youth for Christ meeting in Hialeah.
Gov. Rick Scott initially signed Ferguson's death warrant last fall, scheduling him to die Oct. 16. But appeals at the state and federal level kept the execution from moving forward. Ferguson's lawyers have filed numerous appeals in several courts. They contend their client is mentally ill and has suffered from schizophrenia since he was a teen.
Ferguson's lawyers say several psychiatrists have ruled over the years that Ferguson is mentally ill. Most of those evaluations came when Ferguson was in a state mental hospital in the 1970s.
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