Florida man asks US Supreme Court to halt planned execution

STARKE, Fla. – A Florida inmate convicted of killing two people decades ago has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt Thursday’s scheduled execution.

Attorneys for Michael Lambrix filed the appeal Tuesday. Lambrix was convicted of killing Clarence Moore and Aleisha Bryant. Prosecutors said he killed the pair in 1983 outside his trailer near LaBelle, northeast of Fort Myers, after an evening of drinking.

Lambrix argued that the execution, scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, should be halted after Florida’s death penalty sentencing method was found to be unconstitutional. The state has since required a unanimous jury vote in death cases.

The jury was not unanimous in either of Lambrix’s death sentence decisions, but Florida’s Supreme Court has said the new rules do not apply to cases as old as his.