Florida executes convicted serial killer

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

Bolin was convicted of kidnapping, stabbing and bludgeoning three young women from the Tampa area in 1986 and is being executed specifically for the murder of Teri Lynn Matthews. Bolin’s last meal was steak, baked potato, salad and lemon meringue pie, a Department of Corrections spokesman said.

He appealed all his convictions and was retried for each of the killings on procedural grounds, but was again convicted.

Bolin’s case was marked by multiple overturned convictions before guilty verdicts stuck in each of the women’s deaths.

STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A man found guilty of murdering three women almost 30 years ago is scheduled for execution Thursday night.

His execution was scheduled for 6 p.m. but was delayed while state officials awaited word from the Supreme Court about an appeal filed earlier in the day. Bolin got a second death sentence for killing Stephanie Collins, 17.

In later years, 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.

Matthews’ mother, Kathleen Reeves, told NBC News this week that she has no doubt that Bolin – who was convicted after his brother and ex-wife testified against him – killed her daughter, a bank worker.

Gov. Rick Scott signed Bolin’s death warrant in October for the 1986 death of Matthews. Reeves said Bolin could only dies once so it did not matter that he was not executed for his that “it did not matter that Bolin was not executed for all the three cases because he only dies once”, ABC News reported.

‘He dies for all of our girls, ‘ she added.

For the loved ones of those who died, Bolin’s death means some form of justice.

The family of the victims spoke about the closure they felt after the execution. She attended Bolin’s many trials with the mothers of the other two victims.

Given one last chance to speak Wednesday, Bolin thanked his wife and legal defense team who’ve kept him alive for 28 years. He argued that all the evidence used to convict him was both tampered with and planted. “Now they’re just releasing me”. Rosalie Martinez was a paralegal at the Hillsborough Public Defender’s office who was married to a prominent Tampa attorney. Martinez divorced her husband, and, on a live TV, married Bolin in 1996, ten years after the slayings.