Cole Warrant: SCOTUS petition filed
Loran Cole’s execution is scheduled for this Thursday, August 29, at 6:00. Yesterday, Cole filed his petition for writ of certiorari and an application for stay of execution at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Loran Cole’s execution is scheduled for this Thursday, August 29, at 6:00 p.m. It is the first execution scheduled this year in the State.
Late last week, the Florida Supreme Court issued a decision affirming the circuit court’s decision summarily denying Cole’s claims. Yesterday, Cole filed his petition for writ of certiorari and an application for stay of execution at the U.S. Supreme Court. (They were docketed this morning.)
In the petition, Cole presents three questions for the Court:
The full petition can be accessed here.
In his application, Cole argues that the issues he’s presented in the petition warrant a stay of execution. In addition, he argues that his execution should be stayed because he “is a necessary witness in ongoing postconviction proceedings” pending in Iowa, in which Cole was deposed in June 2024.
The full application can be accessed here.
My thoughts are with everyone involved in the warrant and execution process.
I am a retired DP defense attorney, so am not up to snuff on FL litigation - which is why I joined this site. I note, however with interest that the FL SCt. did not entertain his companion claims alleging or claiming 8th Amendment "cruel and unusual punishment" for being one of many survivors in an infamous state-run Boys' Institution which became the basis for many lawsuits for unlawful treatment of youths housed there, Cole being one of them. The Governor is now being asked to stay the execution based on this fact, I presume as he signed off on a settlement of civil cases making the State liable for damages on all youth inmates.
1. Given the present situation, was Cole procedurally barred from citing this as a state/federal constitutional violation? 2. If present in the record, were there any grounds for IAC in failing to cite to that "cruel and unusual (conduct) in trial? or was that already argued and dismissed at the appellate/writ level?
P. Johnson