Florida puts man to death as Alabama issues stay

STARKE, Fla. — Florida executed an inmate Thursday who was convicted of killing two people after a night of drinking decades ago.

Michael Lambrix, 57, died by lethal injection at 10:10 p.m. at Florida State Prison in Bradford County.

For his final words, Lambrix said, “I wish to say the Lord’s Prayer.” He recited the words, ending on the line “deliver us from evil,” his voice breaking slightly at times.

When he finished and the drug cocktail began flowing through his veins, Lambrix’s chest heaved and his lips fluttered. This continued for about five minutes, until his lips and eyelids turned silver-blue and he lay motionless.

Lambrix was the second inmate put to death since Florida resumed executions in August.

Before then, the state had stopped all executions for months after a Supreme Court ruling that found Florida’s method of sentencing people to death was unconstitutional. In response, the state Legislature passed a law requiring death sentences to have a unanimous jury vote.

Lambrix’s attorney, William Hennis, argued in an appeal to the nation’s high court that because his client’s jury recommendations for death were not unanimous they should be thrown out. The Florida Supreme Court has ruled that Lambrix’s case is too old to qualify for relief from the new sentencing system.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday night denied Lambrix’s last-ditch appeal.

Meanwhile, a federal judge halted the execution of an Alabama inmate just hours before he was to be put to death.

Chief U.S. District Judge Keith Watkins on Thursday stayed the execution of 56-yearold Jeffery Lynn Borden. The reprieve came about four hours before Borden was set to be given a lethal injection.

Watkins noted that the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this month ordered additional proceedings in Borden’s challenge to the humaneness of the state’s lethal injection process.

The Alabama attorney general’s office said it would not appeal the stay. The attorney general said there was “insufficient time to lift the stay” before the death warrant expired at midnight.

Borden was convicted of killing his estranged wife, Cheryl Borden, and her father, Roland Harris, during a 1993 Christmas Eve gathering.