Florida death row inmate with days to live loses last-minute bid to dodge execution despite claims that 'horrific abuse' as teen led to killing

By Jared Feldschreiber
Loran Cole
Loran Cole, now 57, would later go on to murder 18-year-old Florida State University student John Edwards, and rape his sister, 21-year-old Pam Edwards, during a brother-sister camping trip in Ocala National Forest, in 1994. Florida Department of Corrections

Florida State Supreme Court has shot down another last minute attempt by a death row inmate to halt his execution, despite his lawyers claims that the "horrific abuse" he suffered as a teen at an all-boys school contributed to his "life decisions."

in a ruling on Friday, Justices ruled that the evidence brought by Loran Cole's attorneys was not new, and denied the motion to stay his execution, according to WMBB-TV.

Lawyers for Cole, 57, alleged in the filing the state is "complicit in the horrific and tragic" abuse that occurred at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys which "contributed to his life choices," according to court documents, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.

The school in the Florida panhandle gained a reputation for the abuse, rape and murder of its students over its century-long history, before it was shut down in 2011.

Cole attended the school in 1984 when he was 17.

He would later go on to murder 18-year-old Florida State University student John Edwards, and rape John's sister, 21-year-old Pam Edwards, during a sibling camping trip in Ocala National Forest, in 1994, court records reviewed by the Lawyer Herald confirmed.

Cole's execution is scheduled for Thursday, August 29.

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