Convicted killer of 3 women scheduled for Florida execution

STARKE, Fla. (AP) – A man convicted of murdering three women almost 30 years ago is scheduled for execution Thursday night in Florida.

If the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals declines to stop the execution, Brunvand will take the case to the Supreme Court. And given the chance to confess to the murders of Terri Lynn Matthews, Natalie Holley, and Stephanie Collins, he insisted, “I did not murder these women”.

The death row inmate also received a life sentence in the January 1986 slaying of Natalie Blanch Holley in Hillsborough County. All three were fatally stabbed. Another jury eventually found him guilty of second-degree murder in that case.

Matthews’ mother, Kathleen Reeves, and Collins’ family were present for the execution.

Bolin continues claims innocence to all the charges.

A number of appeals have been filed on Bolin’s behalf as the clock ticks down on his scheduled execution.

Afterward, tears rolled down the cheeks of Bolin’s lawyer, Bjorn Brunvand, as he talked to members of the media.

In a letter to the governor, Michael Sheedy, the director of the Florida bishops’ conference, said that the use of the death penalty has been “inconsistent, arbitrary, and too often applied in error”.

“It will be in a sense, a closure”, Reeves said, according to the Huffington Post. “I feel relief that it finally occurred”. A bronze grave marker bears her name, date of birth and date of death, along with a simple description composed by her mother: “Beloved Daughter”.

On Wednesday, Bolin told the Fox 13 television station that he’s innocent.

“I know there have been problems with the manufacturers of the drugs being sold in the U.S.”, Brunvard said. “[The families] are not getting any peace by executing me tomorrow”. “It’s my release. My punishment’s over”. “I think that would be terrifying to him, and I think it should be terrifying not easy and just go to sleep”, said Reeves. Rolled up inside the bouquet was the newly signed death warrant for convicted serial killer Oscar Ray Bolin. Rosalie Martinez divorced her husband, a prominent Tampa attorney, to marry the inmate, who she has worked to clear since.

The cases went unsolved until someone called an anonymous tip line in 1990, when Bolin was already serving a 22- to 75-year prison sentence in OH for kidnapping and raping a 20-year-old waitress outside Toledo in 1987.

Rosalie Bolin says her husband is innocent in Matthews’ killing, and she has become one of the state’s most outspoken death penalty opponents since her marriage to Oscar Ray Bolin. During the trial, Bolin’s younger half brother said he watched Bolin beat Matthews and try to drown her with a garden hose.