Florida’s attorney general apologized on Tuesday for delaying a long-planned execution earlier this month so she could attend a fundraiser—for herself.
Pam Bondi has been trying to make amends with voters after formally asking Republican Gov. Rick Scott to reschedule the Sept. 10 execution date of convicted murderer Marshall Lee Gore earlier in the month. According to The Tampa Bay Times, the previously scheduled death by lethal injection conflicted with a “re-election kick-off reception.”
The state’s chief law enforcer publicly expressed her regret while talking to reporters Tuesday after a cabinet meeting.
“I should not have requested the execution be moved. It had been [delayed] twice,” said Bondi, The Tampa Tribune reported. “I’m sorry. And it will not happen again.”
Barring any other push backs, Gore’s execution is now scheduled for Oct. 1.
Bondi said Gore’s legal team filed another motion on Friday to delay the life-ending procedure again, but she added, “We are fighting that.”
Earlier in the month, Bondi issued a sort-of apology: “As a prosecutor, there was nothing more important than seeing justice done, especially when it came to the unconscionable act of murder. I personally put two people on death row and, as Attorney General, have already participated in eight executions since I took office, a role I take very seriously. The planned execution of Marshall Lee Gore had already been stayed twice by the courts, and we absolutely should not have requested that the date of the execution be moved.”
Bondi, who is up for re-election, was a major supporter of the governor’s so-called “Timely Justice Act,” a law – ironically in this case — designed to speed up the death penalty process. It was signed into law in June.
Gore’s execution has already been moved two times before, as mandated by the courts, pending questions over his sanity.
Gore was sentenced to death in the 1988 murder of a 30-year-old Miami woman, Robyn Novick.
Sarah Muller