A federal appeals court has denied a stay of execution for Oscar Ray Bolin, the Florida serial killer who is scheduled to be put to death Thursday.
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Bolin’s attorney, Bjorn Brunvand of Clearwater, said he filed another motion to stay with the district court and with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Governor Rick Scott signed a death warrant in October, allowing an execution date for Bolin to be set for the first time. The 26-year-old was abducted from a post office in Pasco County, just north of Tampa.
Bolin, 53, was also found guilty in the Tampa-area slayings earlier that year of Natalie Blanche Holley, 25, and Stephanie Collins, 17.
He once again received the death penalty in the Matthews’ and Collins’ killings, but a new jury in the Holley slaying found Bolin guilty of second-degree murder, converting his previous death sentence to a sentence of life in prison.
“It’s the last thing I can do for her”, Reeves, 78, said through tears.
On Thursday, in a small white room with the family members of all three victims looking on, Bolin will be injected with a series of drugs meant to kill him.
“I know there have been problems with the manufacturers of the drugs being sold in the U.S.”, Brunvard said. Florida’s just killing me.
Matthews had a job, was learning how to scuba dive and had begun a serious romantic relationship with a young man, she said.
Those convictions were eventually overturned – twice – because Bolin’s confession to his wife should have been protected by spousal privilege, but he was found guilty and condemned to die at his third retrial for Matthews’ death.
“They hear what the state wants them to hear and what the prosecution wants them to hear”, Bolin said. Bolin’s ex-wife was a diabetic and said the sheet matched the ones she would take home from the hospital.
When he was charged in 1990, Bolin was serving a 22- to 75-year prison sentence in OH for kidnapping and raping a 20-year-old waitress near Toledo. The first two convictions were thrown out by appeals courts.
While on trial, Bolin and a woman on his defense team fell in love. Holley’s mother died in 2012. “I’ll probably think about it more when we get to that point”.
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A number of appeals have been filed on Bolin’s behalf as the clock ticks down on his scheduled execution.
