Attorneys for Loran Cole argue his execution should be stayed because of his Parkinson’s disease

By Jim Saunders ©2024 The News Service of Florida

TALLAHASSEE — Attorneys for condemned killer Loran Cole have asked the Florida Supreme Court for a stay of his scheduled Aug. 29 execution, saying the state’s lethal injection procedures likely would cause “needless pain and suffering” because of Cole’s symptoms from Parkinson’s disease.

The attorneys Tuesday evening filed a motion for a stay and a broader brief that also argued Cole should be spared execution because of abuse he suffered as a teen at the state’s notorious Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys. Gov. Ron DeSantis on July 29 signed a death warrant for Cole, who was convicted in the 1994 murder of a Florida State University student in the Ocala National Forest.

The motion and the brief said the Supreme Court should require a Marion County circuit judge to hold an evidentiary hearing on the Parkinson’s disease issue. The brief said Cole, who has had Parkinson’s symptoms since 2017, “experiences shaking in both of his arms from his neck to his fingertips and in his legs.”

“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,” the brief said.

Cole’s lawyers also wrote that he “faces a substantial risk of illness by injury and needless suffering.”

“When placing an intravenous line, each failed attempt creates a one-and-done for that vein,” the brief said. “Each attempt is singularly painful, and the pain will only escalate with each successive attempt to place an intravenous line. Should FDOC (the Florida Department of Corrections) fail to find a peripheral vein in Cole’s arms or legs, the lethal injection protocol directs the placement of a central intravenous line. The skill needed to do this is beyond an average person capable of placing intravenous lines in the arms or legs. The central vein location includes the groin, the neck, and below the collarbone.”

But Marion County Circuit Judge Robert Hodges last week rejected the Parkinson’s disease argument as part of a broader ruling that allowed the planned execution to move forward. Hodges wrote, in part, that the claim was “untimely” because Cole has long known about the Parkinson’s symptoms but did not raise the issue until after the death warrant was signed.

Hodges also wrote that he found the Parkinson’s disease argument “without merit” and that Cole “failed to allege that medical personnel have previously had problems finding a vein in his arm or that he has previously suffered pain during the placement of an intravenous line. Instead, he merely speculates that he will suffer because of his involuntary body movements.”

“The placement of an intravenous line in a patient with body movements is neither unique nor rare in the medical field,” Hodges added.

Cole, 57, was sent to Death Row in the February 1994 murder of Florida State University student John 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 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.)

Along with raising the Parkinson’s disease issue, Cole’s attorneys argue that his death sentence should be vacated because of abuse at the state’s now-closed Dozier reform school. Cole was at the Marianna school in 1984 and suffered abuse such as rape and beatings, according to Tuesday’s brief and arguments filed in the circuit court.

Cole’s attorneys said the jury that recommended a death sentence did not know about the abuse he suffered at Dozier. Also, the attorneys have pointed to a law that passed this year to compensate some victims of abuse at Dozier, though the law would not apply to Cole.

“Cole’s jury was not told about the compelling mitigation that Cole was a student at Dozier, where he experienced rape and other horrific methods of abuse,” Tuesday’s brief said. “If Cole’s jury had known about the severe abuse … at Dozier, and Florida’s willingness to acknowledge the severe problems at Dozier to the extent that designated victims are entitled to reparations, there is a reasonable probability the newly discovered evidence would yield a less severe sentence. There is a reasonable probability a jury presented with the newly discovered information would recommend a sentence of life for Cole.”

But Hodges last week ruled that “evidence regarding defendant’s (Cole’s) treatment while he

attended the Dozier School is not newly discovered evidence.” The judge said Cole’s lawyers unsuccessfully raised the issue of his treatment at Dozier in previous appeals.

“The court finds that although (the) defendant is using a different argument, he is attempting to relitigate the same issue he raised in two prior motions,” Hodges wrote.

Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office faces a Friday deadline for filing briefs at the Supreme Court.