TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A former South Florida police officer is scheduled to be executed for killing nine people in 1986.
The lethal injection of Manuel Pardo, 56, is set for 6 p.m. Tuesday at Florida State Prison unless he wins an appeal.
On Friday, lawyers for Pardo argued that state courts failed to provide a meaningful review of his challenge to changes in Florida's three-drug lethal injection cocktail. They also contend psychiatric and competency information about Pardo was never forwarded to the state Executive Clemency Board.
The state filed a response arguing that Pardo's constitutional rights were not violated.
Prosecutors said he robbed drug dealers and then killed them and witnesses. At his 1988 trial, Pardo admitted to the killings, saying he was ridding the streets of the "scum of the earth."
