Death Row Inmate Argues To Delay Execution

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Attorneys for a Florida inmate want the state’s highest court to delay his execution while it determines how to apply a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Florida’s death penalty system is unconstitutional.

Martin McClain, an attorney for inmate Michael Lambrix, argued Tuesday before Florida’s Supreme Court that last month’s ruling should apply to Lambrix’s and all decided death penalty cases.

The U.S. Supreme Court found Florida’s death penalty system flawed because it allows judges, not juries, to decide death sentences.

Scott Browne of the Florida Attorney General’s office said the ruling should not apply to already-decided cases, and wants the state to execute Lambrix as scheduled Feb. 11.

Lambrix was sentenced for the 1983 slayings of two people he met at a bar. Prosecutors said he killed them after inviting them home for dinner.