Florida executes man who got reprieve while in death chamber

STARKE, Fla. - A man who killed a bailiff in a courtroom shooting and thought he was Jesus Christ was executed by injection Wednesday, one day after he received a reprieve while strapped to the gurney in the death chamber.

Thomas Provenzano had been granted the stay Tuesday, 11 minutes before the scheduled execution. Intravenous needles had already been inserted in his arms

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta, which had given no reason for its stay, dissolved the order Wednesday morning and Gov. Jeb Bush rescheduled the execution for the evening.

The execution was delayed again Wednesday while the Florida Supreme Court reviewed a stay request received at 6 p.m. - a half-hour before Provenzano was scheduled to die.

Provenzano's lawyers said his mental condition had deteriorated and asked for time to have him examined by psychiatrists. The request was denied at 6:44 p.m. and seven minutes later Bush told the prison warden to begin the execution.

Provenzano looked at his lawyer, Michael Reiter, ''Thanks for everything, Mike.'' He was pronounced dead at 7 p.m.

Provenzano, 51, was executed for the murder of William ''Arnie'' Wilkerson, one of three bailiffs shot in 1984 when the unemployed electrician opened fire. The other two bailiffs were paralyzed; one has since died.

A trial judge concluded in December that Provenzano believed he faced execution because he is Jesus. But the judge ruled that was not a strong enough reason to spare him, because Provenzano also knew he had killed Wilkerson.

Under Florida law, condemned killers can be executed even if they are mentally ill - unless they don't understand they are about to be executed and why.

Provenzano's sister, Catherine Forbes, had asked the governor in a letter Tuesday to spare her brother.

''As you know, Thomas is severely mentally ill,'' Forbes wrote. ''He believes he is Jesus Christ and that he is going to be executed because people hate Jesus.''

Bush responded that he found no reason to alter the sentence.

Florida has executed four inmates this year, all by injection. It switched to lethal injection in January to stave off a U.S. Supreme Court review of whether the electric chair was cruel and unusual punishment. In previous executions in the electric chair, an inmate bled from the nose and another had flames shoot from his mask.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday night granted a stay of execution to a Virginia man about 75 minutes before he was scheduled to die in the electric chair for the murders of a woman and her 5-year-old daughter in 1993.

The high court granted the stay based on a petition lawyers for 32-year-old Russel W. Burket filed with the court. It remains in effect until the court considers the petition.