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5 High court delays Provenzano execution to allow testimony on
TALLAHASSEE - The man who opened fire in an Orlando courtroom has said he is Jesus Christ.
Less than 24 hours before Thomas Provenzano was to be executed, the Florida Supreme Court gave the condemned killer an indefinite reprieve Thursday based on his claim of insanity.
The ruling marks the fourth time this summer the state's high court has saved Provenzano from a trip to the electric chair.
Fifteen years ago, Provenzano opened fired in an Orlando courthouse, shooting three bailiffs. One died immediately, one was paralyzed and later died, and one remains paralyzed from the shoulders down.
Mark Parker, the surviving bailiff, had planned to attend Friday's execution. Thursday he said he couldn't understand why there were so many delays.
``If we had 15 years to prepare for that day, hell, if we had 30 minutes to prepare - and we didn't get it - those two officers would be alive,'' Parker said from his home outside of Orlando. ``I'd be in a different situation.''
Parker, 35, was 19 when Provenzano shot him. William Wilkerson, a 60-year-old who had retired from the Navy 14 years earlier as a lieutenant commander, was fatally shot. Harry Dalton, a 53-year-old father of six, was left paralyzed and died seven years later.
Based on the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment, Florida law bars the execution of a condemned killer who doesn't understand he is about to be executed or why. A psychologist for Provenzano has said he believes he faces execution because he is Jesus Christ.
Provenzano has made that claim since before he walked into the Orlando courthouse in January 1984 armed with a shotgun, an assault rifle, a revolver and a knapsack carrying ammunition.
Three weeks ago, retired Judge E. Randolph Bentley concluded that despite Provenzano's sometimes bizarre behavior, he is sane enough to understand that he faces execution and why.
But Provenzano's key witness, a Wyoming psychologist, didn't testify at the hearing because of a conflict in schedules. Florida's high court said Thursday that Bentley should have extended the hearing a couple of days to hear her testify.
