BARTOW, FL -- Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd unveiled a long sheet of paper, possibly 10 feet long. It hit the ground with a thud. The Sheriff's Office called it a "judicial slip and slide."
The paperwork showed the timeline of convicted murderer Paul Beasley Johnson and how his case has gone through several avenues, to the point where, more than 28 years later, he's still on death row.
"It's an appropriate sentence and it needs to be carried out and it doesn't need to be carried out decades and decades and decades later," Sheriff Judd said.
On January 9, 1981, Johnson shot and killed 54-year-old William Evans of Winter Haven and 21-year-old Ray Beasley of Lakeland, before taking the gun of 27-year-old Polk County Deputy Sheriff T.A. Burnham and killing him with the law enforcement officer's own weapon.
The case was tried twice, the second an appeal. Johnson was convicted, but his lawyers have fought to keep him from being executed.
Johnson was set to be executed November 4, 2009 at 6pm, but the week before, the Florida Supreme Court granted a stay of execution. That was after Governor Charlie Crist signed Johnson's death warrant.
Deputy Sheriff Burnham was a close friend of Judd's. The Sheriff said the two went to high school and police academy together. However, Judd said, he simply wants justice served in a timely manner.
Johnson's lawyer, Martin McClain told abcactionnews.com he hopes to get his client a new trial. One argument McClain brought up: he claims the state wrongly sent someone to interview Johnson in jail in 1981, without a lawyer present for Johnson.
According to the Florida Department of Corrections, the average time an inmate is on death row is 12 1/2 years.
