A lawyer for Death Row inmate Louis Gaskin has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stop Gaskin from being put to death on Wednesday for killing a Flagler County couple in 1989.
Thursday, Gaskin’s lawyer, Eric Pinkard, sent papers to the U.S. Supreme Court asking for a stay of execution and for the court to hear arguments about whether Gaskin should be spared the death penalty.
The tweet below explains the situation:
Yesterday the FL Supreme Court denied #LouisGaskin set to be executed on April 12. It is not surprising but such a disgrace. Pls raise your voice and protest the execution of a man suffering from severe mental illness! The time is NOW!#StopExecutionsFlorida @ACLUFL pic.twitter.com/AexIEbJMaG
— Karine Omry (@KarineOmry) April 7, 2023
The papers were filed after the Florida Supreme Court turned down a request to stop the execution on Thursday. Gaskin, who is now 56, was found guilty of killing Robert and Georgette Sturmfels when he broke into their Flagler County home and killed them.
In their appeals to the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court, Gaskin’s lawyers said that the jury didn’t hear enough about his mental illness before recommending that he be put to death.
Read: Lawyers want to stop the execution of a man who killed a couple in Flagler County in 1989.
The jury voted 8-4 that Gaskin should be put to death, and a judge then gave Gaskin the death sentence.
“This (U.S. Supreme) Court has made it clear that the sentencer’s consideration of mitigation is at the heart of the death penalty’s constitutionality,” Pinkard wrote in his motion for a stay on Thursday. “Because the trial judge and the jury that made the recommendation didn’t have access to the mitigation (evidence) that was available in Mr. Gaskin’s case, the recommending jury and the trial court never paid attention to Mr. Gaskin’s unique situation.
His poverty, mental illness, and the trauma he went through were never taken into account, so he did not meet the minimum constitutional requirements.
Last month, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the death warrant for Gaskin.
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