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Florida carries out first USA execution of 2016

Bolin was convicted of kidnapping, stabbing and bludgeoning three young woman from the Tampa area in 1986 although he was executed specifically for the murder of Teri Lynn Matthews.

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Convicted serial killer Oscar Ray Bolin, 53, was the first to be executed in the United States this year.

A mother of one of the victims says she’s counting the minutes, making sure Bolin doesn’t get a reprieve from the US Supreme Court to delay this long-awaited justice.

Two months later, Ms Matthews was abducted from a post office in Pasco County, just north of Tampa. Bolin was convicted and sentenced to death for killing Stephanie Collins as well as being convicted and sentenced to death for killing Natalie Holley.

After his conviction, the verdicts in three trials were reversed at least twice because of legal errors, but he was then found guilty again in all three cases.

‘I never, never, ever thought for a second that he was guilty of those three murders, ‘ she told ABC’s 20/20 past year. He did not have any last words, and his last meal consisted of a rib-eye steak, baked potato, salad, garlic bread, lemon meringue pie and a bottle of Coca-Cola. His visitors included his wife, Rosalie, and Dale Recinella who is Bolin’s spiritual adviser. Matthews’ mother Kathleen Reeves thanked a key witness against Bolin – his half-brother Phillip Bolin, who testified in 1986 that he had witnessed his brother beating a woman who was wrapped in a sheet, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

“He dies for all of our girls”.

But cops said Oscar Ray Bolin’s first victim was Holley, and that she was abducted after she left work at a Tampa restaurant in 1986.

Oscar Ray Bolin Jr., center, watches as the jurors walk into the courtroom Thursday, April 19, 2012 in Tampa.

While on trial, Bolin and a woman on his defense team fell in love.

He told Fox 13 on Wednesday that he is innocent. Rosalie Martinez had been a paralegal at the Hillsborough Public Defender’s office who was married to a prominent Tampa attorney.

Bolin’s death sentence in the Matthews case was upheld in 2004 after three trials.

He said: “My conscience is clear”. ‘[The families] are not getting any peace by executing me tomorrow’.

Martinez divorced him and married Bolin, on live TV, in 1996 – 10 years after the killings. It’s my release. My punishment’s over.

Florida is one of the country’s most active death penalty states. “My punishment’s over. They can’t hurt me no more”.

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“[The state] killed me 28 years ago when they locked me up”, he said.

First Execution Of 2016 Scheduled For Florida Serial Killer