May. 22, 2004

RON WORD, Associated Press

STARKE, Fla. - When the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment
in 1976, Florida had no executioner, no written procedure on how to
conduct an execution and had not used the electric chair in 15 years.

Despite those problems, on May 25, 1979, John Spenkelink, a drifter
convicted of killing a traveling companion, became the first man put to
death in Florida since the court's ruling.

Now the state is again facing scrutiny as it plans to execute a man on the
25th anniversary of Spenkelink's death - a twist that state prison
officials call a coincidence.

John Blackwelder, a 49-year-old convicted child molester, said he killed a
man in prison just so he would be sentenced to die.

"I made it clear, I want off this world. I can't kill myself. I'm not
suicidal. But I sure can make it hard for everybody else," Blackwelder
told the Florida Supreme Court in 2000. He has dropped all his appeals and
is seeking execution.

Abe Bonowitz, executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the
Death Penalty, called Blackwelder's actions "governor-assisted suicide."
Unless he receives a last-minute stay, Blackwelder is scheduled to die at
6 p.m. Tuesday.

Since executions resumed in the United States, 910 people have been
executed, including 58 in Florida, according to the Death Penalty
Information Center. Florida leads the nation in the number of inmates
freed from death row in the same period - 25.

Among the 44 inmates strapped into Florida's electric chair, known as "Old
Sparky," were serial killer Ted Bundy, "black widow" killer Judy Buenoano
and death row sage Willie Darden. Another 14 inmates, including serial
killer Aileen Wuornos, died by injection.

The chair has twice malfunctioned, with flames leaping from the heads of
two inmates. After pictures of one electrocuted inmate's bloody face
surfaced on the internet, the state did away with the chair.

Six of the last 10 inmates executed in Florida have dropped their appeals
and asked to die.

Unlike Blackwelder, the 30-year-old Spenkelink fought his execution. His
appeal made five trips to the U.S. Supreme Court.

David Kendall, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who represented Spenkelink,
thought his client had a good chance to avoid execution.

"We believed this was an excellent case for a commutation of sentence,"
Kendall said in a telephone interview. "Everyone expected something to
happen so John Spenkelink would not be executed."

Prior to trial, Spenkelink rejected an offer to plead guilty to
second-degree murder and avoid the death penalty.

"He felt it was not murder, but self-defense," Kendall recalled.

Then-Gov. Bob Graham, who is now a U.S. senator, signed the warrant that
would end Spenkelink's life. Demonstrators beat a drum outside the
governor's mansion, then filled the lobby of Graham's office the next day.

"What a nightmare that was," said Jim Smith, who was Florida attorney
general at the time. "We were doing what we had to do to make sure that
the execution occurred. ... This was the law of the state and it was my
job to see that it was carried out."

David Brierton, who was Florida State Prison superintendent at the time,
declined to be interviewed.

Brierton was criticized for his plans to keep the blinds drawn in the
execution chamber until Spenkelink was strapped in. Brierton hoped to
prevent a circus-like atmosphere at the prison like that when Gary Gilmore
asked to be executed before Utah's firing squad in 1977.

Instead, the closed blinds led to accusations that Spenkelink had been
mistreated. An investigation found no such evidence.

Brierton said earlier he had two fears - the chair wouldn't work or the
governor would call five minutes after it was over and say there was a
stay.

But there would be no stay. After taking two shots of Jack Daniels,
Spenkelink was put to death.