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Death Row Inmate Seeks Another Stay

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By BAIRD HELGESON

bhelgeson@tampatrib.com

Published: February 10, 2009

TAMPA - A man scheduled to die Wednesday in the murder of a teenage Tampa girl 25 years ago has petitioned the Florida Supreme Court for a stay of execution.

Wayne Tompkins' attorneys asked for the delay Monday to allow the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to consider legal motions, including one seeking additional DNA testing after earlier tests were inconclusive.

The circuit court has not indicated when it might rule on the motions. Tompkins is expected to appeal any decision that doesn't go in his favor, said his attorneys, Martin McClain and Neal Dupree.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum called the petition an eleventh-hour effort that "is clearly without merit and simply represents another attempt to delay Tompkins' long overdue execution."

McCollum argues that Tompkins is seeking to force further DNA testing on hair and clothing from the victim even though a court determined the results of the testing would not exonerate him.

This is among Tompkins' last chances to save his life.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday denied a motion to appoint an attorney to represent Tompkins in a civil rights case and for clemency proceedings.

Tompkins, now 51, was convicted of first-degree murder in 1985 for the death of his girlfriend's daughter, 15-year-old Lisa DeCarr.

DeCarr disappeared March 24, 1983. Tompkins told her mother she had run away, police said.

The girl's remains were found more than a year later in a shallow grave beneath the porch of a home in Southeast Seminole Heights where DeCarr had lived. Prosecutors said Tompkins strangled the girl when she resisted his attempt to rape her.

The state brought murder charges against Tompkins after he told cellmates he killed the teen, prosecutors said. At the time of his admission, Tompkins was being held on separate rape charges.

Two previous Florida governors signed Tompkins' death warrant, Bob Martinez in 1989 and Jeb Bush in 2001. His case has gone through a series of appeals.

Information from Tampa Tribune archives was used in this report. Reporter Baird Helgeson can be reached at (813) 259-7668. TBO.com, Keyword: Death row, to search the list of executions and death row inmates.

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