A Florida judge has denied a death row inmate’s request to overturn his sentence, despite arguments that a new law compensating victims of abuse at a notorious reform school should warrant a case review.
The inmate, scheduled for execution later this month, has spent decades on death row for a 1994 murder.
His lawyers argued that the abuse he suffered at the school contributed to his criminal behavior, but the judge deemed the evidence not new and thus insufficient to overturn the sentence.
Read: Florida Death Row Inmate Executed 35 Years After He Raped, Brutally Murdered Woman
Cole’s attorneys immediately filed an appeal to the Florida Supreme Court, seeking to halt his execution scheduled for August 29th.
Cole’s legal team contends that a new law offering compensation to victims of abuse at the Dozier School for Boys warrants a fresh review of his case, citing the trauma he endured there as a contributing factor to his crimes.
They argue that this law represents new evidence that could have swayed the jury’s decision in 1995.
However, the judge dismissed this claim, stating that Cole’s treatment at Dozier had been raised in previous appeals without success.
Cole, 57, was convicted in 1994 for the murder of a Florida State University student. He was 17 years old when he was sent to Dozier in 1984. His lawyers contend that the jury was not made aware of the “torturous treatment” Cole endured at the now-shuttered Marianna facility.
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