| Florida Executes Killer in 26-Year-Old Murder Case By Michael Peltier TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Reuters) - Florida executed a 48-year-old Tampa man by lethal injection on Wednesday for a 1977 murder he denied committing. Amos King was pronounced dead at 6:43 p.m. EST following an injection that stopped his heart and paralyzed his lungs, according to Liz Hirst, a spokeswoman for Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. The execution, Florida's first this year, took place at Florida State Prison near Starke. King was sentenced to death for the murder of 68-year-old Natalie Brady, who lived near the Tarpon Springs work release prison where King was serving time. King, then 22, was caught trying to re-enter the prison grounds and stabbed a counselor at the work camp 15 times. At trial, witnesses said they saw King coming from the direction of Brady's house. King said his pants were bloodied in the fight with the counselor and not from killing Brady. Four months after the murder, a jury found King guilty and on a unanimous vote recommended that he be put to death. Gov. Jeb Bush signed King's death warrant in November 2001 but the execution was postponed three times, including a stay granted by Bush in December to conduct further genetic tests. The results were inconclusive. Prison officials said King met with his legal team for nearly two hours on Tuesday evening. The meeting followed an interview earlier in the day with reporters at the prison, where King again proclaimed his innocence. At his execution, King made a four-minute speech, again reiterating his innocence and finding fault with Florida's death penalty. The execution was delayed slightly because of last-minute appeals to the Florida and U.S. Supreme Courts. One of those appeals was made by King himself, rather than the lawyers who usually file death penalty appeals. He argued that the death penalty in the United States violated international law. King, who converted to Buddhism while serving on death row, was accompanied by a Buddhist priest throughout the day on Wednesday. After an autopsy, his body will be released to another Buddhist priest who is expected to have it cremated. Amos is the 55th prisoner to be put to death in Florida since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. His execution came a month after state prison officials released Rudolph Holton for a 1986 murder of a Tampa teen-ager.
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