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3 Separate Appeals Lost By Death Row Inmate

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The Associated Press

Published: November 8, 2008

  Wayne Tompkins

TALLAHASSEE - A death row inmate seeking to stave off execution for killing his girlfriend's teenage daughter lost three separate appeals Friday in the Florida Supreme Court.

Wayne Tompkins, 57, murdered Lisa DeCarr, the 15-year-old daughter of his girlfriend, 25 years ago in Tampa. Tompkins is under a stay of execution that's due to expire Nov. 18. A new execution date has not yet been set.

Appeals by Tompkins included a claim that the state's lethal injection procedure is unconstitutional because it inflicts cruel and unusual punishment. The state justices and U.S. Supreme Court rejected similar appeals by two other Florida death row inmates, who were executed earlier this year.

The high court unanimously denied all of his claims except one, which it turned aside on a 4-1 vote. Chief Justice Peggy Quince and Justice Charles Canady recused themselves from all three cases.

Justice Harry Lee Anstead wrote in dissent that he would have granted Tompkins' request for an evidentiary hearing on a claim of prosecutorial misconduct. Tompkins alleged a former inmate's trial testimony was tainted because a prosecutor told him to give the jury false information.

"Imagine here a jury already concerned with the credibility of a jailhouse snitch now being told that a critical part of his testimony was fabricated by the state's prosecutor," he wrote. "Surely, common sense would tell us this is the kind of 'bombshell' disclosure that could change the jury's entire evaluation of the case."

Capital Collateral Regional Representative Neal Dupree, whose office is representing Tompkins, said he was disappointed and agreed with Anstead's dissent.

Another appeal is pending in U.S. District Court in Tampa. Dupree said that court may be asked to also consider the issues in the state appeals or they might be taken directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Other rejected claims included that Gov. Charlie Crist lacked the authority to reset Tompkins' execution - originally scheduled in 2004 but delayed by appeals - and the extra four years on death row were cruel and unusual punishment.

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