Stay Issued in Florida Case with No Federal Habeas Review

TheU.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit stay in Howell v. Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections is available in Adobe .pdf format.

"Florida asks Supreme Court to lift killer's execution stay," is the AP report, via the Tampa Tribune.

The state is asking a U.S. Supreme Court justice to lift a stay of execution obtained by a South Florida drug trafficker who was convicted of killing a state trooper with a pipe bomb 21 years ago.

Paul Augustus Howell was set for execution Tuesday at Florida State Prison near Starke, but the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. District of Appeal on Monday temporarily blocked it.

"Paul Howell Granted Temporary Stay Of Execution One Day Before Scheduled Lethal Injection," is by Hunter Stuart at Huffington Post.

Paul Howell, the 47-year-old man convicted of killing a state trooper in 1992, was granted a stay of execution on Monday, just one day before he was scheduled to be given a lethal injection.

One of Howell attorney's, Michael Ufferman, told The Huffington Post on Monday that he had received an order from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that Howell's execution would be temporarily stayed because the district court had granted Howell's certificate of appealability.

Ufferman said the court was currently deciding whether or not Howell would have the opportunity to have his case heard in federal court, an opportunity he has not yet had.

HuffPost reported on Friday that Howell would be put to death Feb. 26 without having his final federal review, a routine right universally recognized for prison inmates, because a former attorney had missed a filing deadline for a crucial piece of paperwork.

Although that filing deadline is stated clearly in the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, a U.S. Supreme Court decision from 2010 ruled that that deadline can be relaxed in certain circumstances, such as the misconduct of a state-appointed attorney, like Howell's.

Earlier coverage of Paul Howell's case begins at the link; also available, coverage of Florida legislation and editorial calls for reforms.