[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----FLORIDA

[Rick Halperin]

August 24



FLORIDA----impending/imminent execution

Supreme Court won't stop Florida man's execution


The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to block the execution of a Florida man 
scheduled Thursday evening.

The high court's decision came without comment in the case of 53-year-old Mark 
Asay, who was convicted of two racially motivated murders in Jacksonville in 
1987. Asay would be the first white man to be executed in Florida for killing a 
black man.

The execution by lethal injection is set for 6 p.m. It will be Florida's first 
since the U.S. Supreme Court halted the practice in the state 18 months ago.

The execution also will be the first in the U.S. using the drug etomidate, 
which Asay's lawyers unsuccessfully challenged. Two other drugs also will be 
used.

(source: Associated Press)