Florida Supreme Court denies Barwick's claims late Friday.
In a unanimous opinion issue late Friday afternoon, the Florida Supreme Court denied Darryl Barwick's claims ahead of the execution scheduled for Wednesday.
Late Friday, the Florida Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision denying Darryl Barwick’s claims seeking relief from his execution scheduled for Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. (The full background on Barwick’s case can be found here.
’s post about Barwick’s claims is here. My post about Barwick’s claims related to the short warrant period is here. Friday morning’s post about timing of the decision is here.)Addressing Barwick’s claims about the warrant process, the majority wrote:
Barwick has made it abundantly clear in his pleadings filed in both the circuit court and this Court that the post-warrant litigation in this case has been very arduous for his counsel due to certain circumstances that happened to coincide with the beginning of the warrant period, such as the occurrence of Holy Week, Passover, and Ramadan; co-counsel being ill; and the presence of another inmate on Death Watch. Indeed, post-warrant litigation is arduous, even without such circumstances. Yet none of the obstacles identified by Barwick resulted in a denial of due process.
(Emphasis added.) Justice Jorge Labarga concurred in result only, writing a short opinion about his concerns with the pace of executions lately and the short warrant periods, writing in full:
Rehearing is not allowed. The mandate issued immediately.
Barwick and his attorneys, as well as the state, now have five calendar days, including a weekend, in which the following must occur before the execution can proceed on Wednesday:
Barwick must file a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court;
The State must respond to the petition;
Barwick can file a reply; and
The Court has to issue a decision denying all relief.
Our thoughts are with everyone involved in the warrant process.