LESLEY CLARK
Herald Capital Bureau

STARKE -- Triple-murderer Allen Lee ``Tiny'' Davis met a bloody death during his electrocution at sunup Thursday in Florida's new electric chair, an end grisly enough that the State Supreme Court later delayed another execution scheduled for today.

The appearance of blood for the first time in recent history in Florida's death chamber sparked a flurry of questions about the method the state uses to kill its condemned.

Thursday evening, the state's high court granted defense attorneys for condemned killer Thomas Provenzano time to prepare arguments that the electric chair malfunctioned and its use for executions is unconstitutional. The court set a hearing for Aug. 24, and delayed the execution until Sept. 14.

State and prison officials said Thursday that the chair worked properly, and that an autopsy showed that the blood, which left a stain on Davis' shirt the size of a dinner plate, was from a nosebleed. But defense attorneys for Provenzano said they had evidence that the voltage used to electrocute Davis was lower than it is supposed to be.

A scarlet stain on Davis' chalky white dress shirt appeared just below his breastbone -- first as a single drop of blood, then growing -- seconds after the black-hooded executioner flipped the switch, sending 2,300 volts of electricity coursing through Davis.

Witnesses to the early morning execution said the blood appeared to have come from his chest underneath the long-sleeved shirt, but Victor Selyutin, the prison doctor who pronounced Davis dead 10 minutes after the execution, said in a prepared statement that ``the blood appeared to be the result of a typical nosebleed.'' Prison officials would not allow Selyutin to be interviewed.

An autopsy, which Davis had requested before his death, found blood in both nostrils and on his upper lip but not on his chest. Medical examiner William F. Hamilton of Gainesville did find blood on Davis' shirt and a ``burn ring'' around his shaven skull and his calf from the chair's electrodes. Hamilton, who said Davis died by electrocution, also noted small burn marks on Davis' lower torso and upper thigh.

Was taking blood thinners

Selyutin noted that Davis was taking ``heavy doses'' of what he called two ``well-known blood thinners'' -- aspirin and Motrin -- for his arthritis. Davis also suffered from high blood pressure.

Prison officials said previous wardens have witnessed nose bleeds in the death chair, but they didn't say which wardens. Prison spokesman Gene Morris said he had not seen blood on an inmate in 15 executions in eight years with the Department of Corrections.

Davis died in front of four rows of observers separated from the chair by a layer of glass. Among the witnesses was John Weiler, the man whose wife and two small daughters Davis bludgeoned and shot to death in 1982.

``The execution today was a legal, moral and righteous one,'' Weiler said in tears. ``I can assure you my God approves.''

Arrived in wheelchair

Davis, who had argued that death in the electric chair would be painful, in part because he weighed 344 pounds, screamed twice just before the electricity shot through the head piece.

He was rolled into the death chamber in a prison-issued wheelchair, his enormous shaved head glistening with gel. He returned the stares of witnesses, but showed no emotion.

Silently, four guards lifted him into the chair and fastened him to the seat, buckling the thick leather straps across his chest, waist and arms.

Sitting impassively, Davis watched the guards remove the shackles and strap his ankles to the chair. His right pant leg was rolled up, displaying a shaved calf. He shook his head briefly and knotted his bushy eyebrows, giving the guards attaching the electrodes to his right leg a quizzical stare.

At one point, he looked up to the ceiling and sighed.

No last words

Prison warden James Crosby asked if he had any last words. Davis shook his head.

The chin strap was placed over his mouth, a wide leather band that covered the lower half of his face. His cheeks and forehead reddened. Then the headpiece, with its lethal brass electrode, was lowered onto his head, and a black mask dropped over his eyes.

Behind the chair, a prison official talked softly to Gov. Jeb Bush on one of three phones on the wall of the death chamber. There was no last-minute stay.

As the official nodded toward the black-hooded executioner -- who was paid $150 in cash for the task -- Davis' chest began to rise and he let out two muffled screams. Behind a blue curtain, the executioner threw the switch. Davis' massive body jerked back against the oak chair, his fists clenched. The only sound was the low hum of electricity as the chair delivered its deadly charge in three pulsating signals.

Blood appears

Then, a trickle of bright red blood appeared at the front of his white shirt near the center of his chest.

Prison officials in the death chamber looked at each other, their eyes widening as the blood stain enlarged. None of them moved.

The blood continued to seep, dripping onto the leather restraints and leaking through the holes for the buckle.

The executioner flipped the switch at 7:05 and power was shut off at 7:07, corrections officials said. After the power was shut off, Davis' chest convulsed and he shuddered at least twice while prison medical officials took his pulse.

A second medical worker unbuttoned Davis' bloodied shirt and, using a stethoscope, declared him dead at 7:15 a.m. By then the bleeding had stopped.

Seconds later came the official word.

``The sentence of the state of Florida vs. Allen Lee Davis has been carried out at 7:15 a.m.,'' a prison official intoned. ``Please exit to the rear at this time.''

The witnesses filed out, the bloodied Davis still harnessed in the electric chair. Outside, a white hearse was waiting.

Took three lives

Davis' death in the chair came 17 years after he was sentenced to death for the savage bludgeoning and shooting deaths of Nancy Weiler and her two daughters during an attempted burglary at Weiler's Jacksonville home.

That is where the sympathy should be directed, the governor said in a terse statement released shortly after the execution.

``As governor, there is no more solemn duty than to sign a death warrant, and order the execution of an inmate on Death Row,'' Bush said. ``Today, my thoughts and the thoughts of all Floridians go out to the family and friends of Nancy, Kristina and Katherine Weiler, who have waited for justice far too long.

``It is my hope that the use of the death penalty sends the strong signal that the people of Florida will not tolerate the murder of innocent civilians,'' he said.

Prison officials said Davis read and slept, but didn't talk much in the week up to the execution when he was put on death watch, with a guard on duty 24 hours a day in front of his cell. Gainesville attorney Susan Cary, who met with Davis hours before his execution, said he was resigned to the fact he would die in the chair.

Davis spent the night before the execution talking with his attorneys and his brothers, Bruce and Richard Davis, who live in Georgia. He also met with Florida State Prison chaplain Donald Spence.

Still taking medicine

Davis was in good spirits and even joked with Cary when a guard showed up at about 8 p.m. to give Davis his medication for high blood pressure and arthritis.

``It was bizarre and we laughed about it,'' Cary said. ``I told him, `Look, they're concerned about your health.' He laughed at the absurdity of it all.''

Davis rose before the sun was up and ate his last meal shortly after 4 a.m. He downed a lobster tail, fried potatoes, a half-pound of fried shrimp, six ounces of fried clam strips, half a loaf of garlic bread and 32 ounces of A&W root beer. Prison officials said he even polished off the condiments -- drawn butter and a dollop of cocktail sauce.

At just after 7, he was wheeled into the death chamber.

Herald staff writer Phil Long contributed to this report.