Judge Denies Appeal of Condemned Man Convicted of Murdering Lakeland Girl
A circuit judge denied condemned murderer Eddie Wayne Davis’ appeal Tuesday, moving the inmate closer to his July 10 execution at Florida State Prison.
Davis’ lawyers argued last week that his lack of maturity when he kidnapped, raped and suffocated 11-year-old Kimberly Ann Waters in Lakeland 20 years ago should preclude the death penalty. Circuit Judge Donald Jacobsen denied the motion.
Jacobsen also ruled the drugs used in Florida’s lethal injection won’t interfere with a possible blood disorder that Davis may have, causing him undue punishment, and that Gov. Rick Scott didn’t deny Davis due process when he rejected executive clemency.
The Florida Supreme Court now will review Jacobsen’s ruling, said Assistant State Attorney John Aguero, who prosecuted the Davis case in 1995. Lawyers with the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel office in Tampa, which represents Davis, filed motions Tuesday to move the case to the state’s high court.
If the Florida Supreme Court rejects Jacobsen’s ruling, the justices could order the Circuit Court to hear evidence and testimony about the issues raised in last week’s appeal.
If the state Supreme Court upholds the ruling, Davis’ lawyers can appeal his case in federal court, Aguero said.
Davis, 45, confessed three times to murdering the Lakeland girl and dumping her body in a trash bin. In March 1994, Kimberly was taken from her mother’s bed, where she had been sleeping. Her mother, a nurse, was working a double shift at a Lakeland nursing home at the time.
Scott signed a death warrant for Davis on June 1.
The last Polk County inmate to be executed was Phillip Atkins, who died in Florida’s electric chair in December 1995 for the 1981 murder of 6-year-old Antonio Castillo in Lakeland.