Weekly Sections • A&E • Food & Dining • Home & Garden • TGIF • Travel More Post News • Martin-St. Lucie • South P.B. County • Photo of the Day Past issues • Today • Yesterday • Wednesday • Tuesday • Monday • Sunday • Saturday Post services • Subscribe to Post • Scan classifieds • Write letter to editor • Search our archives • Save with Gusto • Contact newsroom • Find internships • Share news tips • Order photo reprints • PostFacts research • Company history Post departments • Advertising • Comm. Relations • Education • Marketing		News Friday, August 27   GoPBI News • Current Weather • NEWS 12 Net Poll • Community forum • Local groups • Fire-rescue scanner • Lottery numbers • Storm99 resources • AP's The Wire More services • Shop online • Free e-mail alerts • 24-hour chat rooms Provenzano: He killed two bailiffs, left another paralyzed. The Associated Press Friday, August 27, 1999 TALLAHASSEE -- The sanity of condemned killer Thomas Provenzano, who claimed to be Jesus Christ since before he opened fire in an Orlando courtroom in 1984, must be evaluated in an evidentiary hearing, the Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday. Provenzano, who killed two bailiffs and left a third paralyzed for life, is scheduled to be executed in Florida's electric chair Sept. 14. Florida's high court did not delay that date, but a trial judge could do so if he needed more time to evaluate Provenzano's competency, according to Michael Reiter, the Death Row inmate's lawyer. Thursday's 6-1 decision came just two days after oral arguments on Provenzano's request for a competency hearing. The court also heard arguments that the electric chair is cruel and unusual punishment, but has not ruled on that issue. The court's unsigned ruling was supported by Chief Justice Major Harding and Justices Leander Shaw, Harry Lee Anstead, Barbara Pariente, R. Fred Lewis and Peggy Ann Quince. Justice Charles Wells dissented. In January 1984, Provenzano, an unemployed electrician, walked into the Orange County Courthouse armed with a shotgun, an assault rifle, a revolver and a knapsack of ammunition, all hidden under a large Army-style jacket. Provenzano was muttering threats against two police officers who had charged him with disorderly conduct five months earlier. He shot three bailiffs when one approached to search him. William Wilkerson, who had retired from the Navy 14 years earlier as a lieutenant commander, was fatally shot. Harry Dalton, a father of six, was left paralyzed and died seven years later. Mark Parker, who was 19, remains paralyzed from the shoulders down. Provenzano was originally scheduled for execution July 7. But two days earlier his lawyers advised Gov. Jeb Bush that they believed their client may be insane. That triggered a law that requires Bush to appoint three psychiatrists to examine Provenzano. They concluded that Provenzano ``has the mental capacity to understand the nature of the death penalty and the reasons why it was imposed on him.'' But less than 12 hours before he was to be executed, the state high court granted Provenzano a 48-hour stay, ordering a circuit judge to review the insanity claim. Circuit Judge Clarence Johnson rejected the claim -- but did not hold a hearing. However, before Provenzano could be executed on July 9, Allen Lee ``Tiny'' Davis went to the chair, as scheduled, on July 8. In the wake of his bloody execution, the state's high court granted Provenzano a stay until Sept. 14 for the electric chair challenge and the appeal of his competency claim that was rejected by Johnson. Earlier this month, Johnson ruled that death in the chair was not cruel or unusual punishment. The Supreme Court is reviewing that decision.

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