Florida is due to execute Manuel Pardo, tonight. It's the last scheduled execution of the year. The Miami Herald reports, "Manuel Pardo: The saga of a Sweetwater ex-cop convicted of mass murder, now set for execution." It's by David Ovalle.
On Tuesday, he is set to die by lethal injection at Florida State Prison in Starke, barring any last-minute appeals.
Even among Miami’s notorious crime lore, Pardo’s case remains an anomaly: He was a military veteran turned cop turned serial killer who meticulously kept news clippings of each of his murders.
“I don’t know if it’s because he was in law enforcement that made it such a nasty, chilling case, but I spent over 19 years in homicide and this one always sticks out,” said retired Hialeah Detective John Allickson, part of the team that investigated Pardo. “In sitting there, talking to him, he was Ted Bundy-esque.”
His lawyers have nevertheless fought for decades to keep him alive.
Among their latest claims: the state has refused to give over enough public records relating to the lethal injection method and the manner of execution is “cruel and unusual punishment.”
Last week, however, the Florida Supreme Court sided with a Miami-Dade judge, rejecting Pardo’s appeals and saying his claim about lethal injection is based on “pure speculation and conjecture.”
Lawyers are appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court and another hearing is scheduled Monday in front of a Jacksonville federal judge. Lawyer William McKinley Hennis III said Pardo, 56, has also long suffered from a thyroid disorder that ravaged his mind and body.
To date, there have been 42 executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,319 post-Furman executions since 1977. Florida has executed 73 men and women since 1979, including two other executions this year.
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