Convicted killer avoids electric chair again

Only a day before Thomas Provenzano was to die, the state's top court delays his execution for a fourth time.

By SYDNEY P. FREEDBERG

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 24, 1999

For the fourth time in three months, condemned killer Thomas Provenzano has avoided a trip to the electric chair.

Just 24 hours before his scheduled execution, the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday gave him an indefinite reprieve based on his claim of insanity.

Gov. Jeb Bush's spokeswoman said he was disappointed by the ruling, and even before the reprieve was announced the governor signed warrants to send two other condemned murderers to the chair.

Left dangling was whether the electric chair is unconstitutionally cruel. That question has been before the Supreme Court since July 8, when Allen Lee "Tiny" Davis was electrocuted in a bloody spectacle.

Marty McDonnell, the governor's assistant general counsel, said Bush decided to go ahead with the new warrants anyway -- setting execution dates for two men next month -- even after he viewed post-execution photographs of Davis sitting in the chair with his face contorted and purple, his shirt bloody.

Defense attorneys charged that the timing of the new warrants suggests Bush is trying to nudge the Supreme Court into making a quick ruling on the chair.

"It's troubling," said New York lawyer Martin McClain, who is challenging the constitutionality of electrocution. "The governor doesn't seem to want to wait for that (electric chair) decision or is trying to put a little pressure on the court to decide the issue."

"I don't think that was it at all," countered McDonnell. "The lower court has found that the chair is constitutional, and the governor feels it's his responsibility to sign death warrants when appropriate."

The state set for Oct. 26 the execution of Terry Sims, convicted of killing an off-duty Seminole County deputy sheriff during an attempted robbery in 1977. Anthony Bryan, who killed a night watchman in Santa Rosa County in 1983, was scheduled to go to the chair the day after Sims.

In its 5-2 ruling Thursday, the Supreme Court ordered a circuit judge to hear testimony from Provenzano's psychologist, who had reported this summer that the condemned man thinks he is Jesus Christ and is too insane to be executed.

Provenzano, 50, claimed to be Christ even before he opened fire in an Orlando courthouse 15 years ago and shot three bailiffs: William Wilkerson, 60, who was killed; Harry Dalton, then 53, who was paralyzed and died seven years later; and Mark Parker, then 19, who remains paralyzed from the shoulders down.

Under Florida law, a condemned killer cannot be executed if he does not understand what is going to happen and why.

Provenzano was originally scheduled to die on July 7, but his lawyers said he was so insane he couldn't be executed.

The evening before Provenzano's scheduled execution, the Florida Supreme Court gave him a 48-hour stay of execution based on his insanity claim.

A day later, Davis' bloody execution turned the two-day stay into a two-month stay while courts held hearings and arguments on whether the chair was unconstitutionally cruel.

As they weighed that issue, justices ordered retired Judge E. Randolph Bentley to hold a competency hearing.

Provenzano's execution was pushed back first to Sept. 14, then to Sept. 24, to give the courts time to settle the issues.

Three weeks ago, Judge Bentley ruled that even though his behavior is sometimes bizarre, Provenzano still understands he is facing execution and why.

But his psychologist, Patricia Fleming of Cheyenne, Wyo., didn't testify at the hearing, and the justices ruled Thursday that Bentley must hold another hearing.

The justices didn't give him a deadline to rule.

Chief Justice Major Harding and Justices Barbara Pariente, Harry Lee Anstead and J. Fred Lewis supported the majority opinion. Anstead and Lewis also wrote their own opinions. Justice Leander Shaw concurred in the result only.

Dissenting were Justices Charles Wells and Peggy Ann Quince.

© Copyright 1999 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.