A petition calling to halt the execution of a convicted Florida killer that garnered thousands of signatures has been sent to the desk of Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The petition submitted Monday and signed by more than 7,000 supporters, is part of the public's last-ditch effort to spare the life of Loran Cole, a 57-year-old murderer and rapist, slated to die by lethal injection Thursday, The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported.
Also Monday, the Florida State Supreme Court shot down another last minute attempt by Cole's attorneys to commute his sentence to life in prison.
Cole killed 18-year-old Florida State University student John Edwards, and raped 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.
He has been sitting on death row since 1995.
Cole's lawyers blamed the abuse he experienced as a 17-year-old at the state's Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys for his poor "life choices" and his decision to rape and kill years later.
"Cole is pleading for a life sentence, because of what Florida employees did to him while he was at Dozier," his attorneys Ali Shakoor and Adrienne Joy Shepherd wrote in a court filing earlier this month, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. "Considering how Florida has admitted to oppressing vulnerable youth at Dozier, the fact that Cole was a student there, let alone suffered horrific abuse while confined, changes the perception and impact of the mitigation his jury was presented."
His accomplice, William Paul, 51, pleaded no contest to murder, kidnapping and robbery, and was sentenced to life in prison.
