Jan. 7
FLORIDA----impending execution
Last meal for Miami killer heavy on sweet stuff
Hours before he was to be executed by lethal injection, Miami triple
murderer Thomas Knight loaded up on sweets and visited with a friend.
His demeanor was calm, a Florida corrections spokeswoman said Tuesday
afternoon.
The condemned inmate - who has been awaiting execution for nearly 4
decades - visited with an unidentified friend Tuesday, 1 day after meeting
with 4 of his sisters.
Knight is scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. for the 1980 stabbing of
Richard Burke, a corrections officer at Florida State Prison, where the
inmate is to be put to death by lethal injection.
The 62-year-old will leave behind a legacy of bloodshed, including the
crime that landed him on Florida's death row to begin with: the 1974
kidnapping and murders of a Bay Harbor Islands couple, Sydney and Lillian
Gans.
Barring a last-minute stay, the execution will cap Knight's 40-year slog
through the criminal justice system, which has infuriated relatives of the
victims and led a federal court to blast the "gridlock and inefficiency of
death penalty litigation."
Knight, then a parolee, was an employee of Sydney Gans, a prominent paper
bag company owner, when he kidnapped the businessman in July 1974.
The gunman Knight forced Gans to drive to his Bay Harbor Islands home,
where Lillian Gans was also abducted. Afterward, Knight forced Sydney Gans
- as his wife was held at rifle-point inside the car - to go into a
Downtown Miami bank and withdraw $50,000.
Gans alerted authorities, before returning to the car because he feared
for his wife's safety.
FBI agents and police officer covertly followed the car as it sped toward
South Miami-Dade. But authorities lost track of the car - a blunder that
has long angered the Gans surviving relatives.
In a remote wooded area, Knight shot each of his hostages with a bullet to
the neck. After hours of searching, officers found Knight hiding in the
mud.
While awaiting trial, Knight and 10 other inmates escaped from the Dade
County jail. He was suspected of killing a clerk at a Georgia liquor store
while on the lam, though he was never charged.
After 101 days as a fugitive, the FBI captured Knight in New Smyrna Beach.
Unlike in today's court system, death penalty cases moved briskly in the
1970s. Within 1 year of the Gans murders, Knight was convicted and sent to
death row.
It was there that Knight, upset that he was not allowed to visit with his
mother at the prison, fatally stabbed Burke in the chest. He was later
convicted and sent back to death row to also face execution for the
slaying of the prison officer.
Knight escaped a March 1981 execution date after a federal judge granted a
stay.
In the years that followed, Knight's appeals moved glacially through the
system.
A federal court reversed the death sentence in 1986, saying he should have
been allowed to present background and character witnesses during a
penalty phase trial.
One decade later, Knight was again sentenced to death - after a trial
marked by his disruptive behavior and cursing at the judge.
That sentence sparked a whole new slew of appeals. In 2006, he appealed a
federal court - and it was not until 6 years later that the judge, again,
reversed the death sentence. The reason: Knight's right to cross-examine
witnesses had been violated.
But in September, a federal appeals court restored the death sentence. One
month later, Gov. Rick Scott signed Knight's death warrant for the Burke
murder.
*************
Knight's dark history
July 17, 1974 - Thomas Knight kidnaps and murders Sydney and Lillian Gans
of Bay Harbor Islands. He is immediately arrested.
September 1974 - Knight and 10 other inmates escape from Dade County jail.
He is placed on the FBI�s Ten Most Wanted List.
October 1974 - Police believe Knight and another man fatally shoot a
liquor store clerk during a robbery for $641 in Crisp County, GA. He is
not charged.
December 1974 - FBI agents capture Knight in New Smyrna Beach. He is found
with a shotgun and 2 pistols, all stolen.
April 1976 - A Miami-Dade jury convicts Knight of murdering the couple. He
is sentenced to death.
October 1980 - Using a sharpened spoon, Knight stabs and kills corrections
Officer Richard Burke at the Florida State Prison in Starke.
March 1981 - Knight is scheduled to be executed after Gov. Lawton Chiles
signs his death warrant. A federal judge stays his execution pending more
appeals.
January 1983 - Knight is convicted and sentenced to death for the Burke
murder.
January 1996 - A federal appeals court overturns his death sentence in the
Gans case, ordering a new penalty phase trial.
February 1996 - After a new sentencing phase, Knight is again sentenced to
death. He is repeatedly banned from the courtroom because of his
disruptive behavior.
March 2006 - With state courts repeatedly affirming his conviction and
sentence, Knight's lawyers appeal to a Miami federal judge.
November 2012 - 6 years after the appeal was first filed, Miami U.S. Judge
Adalberto Jordan reverses Knight's death sentence. He orders a new
sentencing hearing or life sentences for the convict.
September 2013 - A federal appeals court reverses Judge Jordan,
reinstating the death penalty for Knight. "To learn about the gridlock and
inefficiency of death penalty litigation, look no further than this
appeal," the court writes.
October 2013 - Gov. Rick Scott signs death warrant for Knight, not for the
Miami-Dade murders but for the slaying of Burke. The execution is
scheduled for Dec. 3.
November 2013 - The Florida Supreme Court delays the execution, ordering a
Bradford judge to hold a hearing to consider whether a new drug used in
the lethal injection procedure constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
December 2013 - The state's high court lifts the stay of execution after
ruling Knight has failed to prove the drug is unsafe. Gov. Rick Scott
re-schedules the execution for Jan. 7.
(source: Miami Herald)
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