Judge to Hear Condemned Killer's Request for New Lawyers
The Associated Press
Published: Jan 9, 2002

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - An inmate facing execution this month for a murder nearly a quarter of a century ago won a small legal victory Wednesday.

The state Supreme Court ordered a trial judge to hold a hearing into Amos King's request for new attorneys.

King, 47, filed a handwritten request for new lawyers Tuesday, accusing his current lawyers of being "pro-state" and failing to use new evidence he gave them. The lawyers refused to comment on the accusations.

Circuit Judge Susan Schaeffer scheduled a hearing Friday to consider King's request.

King is scheduled to be executed Jan. 24 for the murder of Natalie Brady, a 68-year-old widow who was raped, choked and stabbed in her Tarpon Springs home on March 18, 1977.

Schaeffer denied King's latest appeal after a hearing Tuesday and the Supreme Court will listen to oral arguments next Tuesday.

King is one of the veterans on Florida's death row; only about a dozen of the 372 people on death row have been there longer.

Florida has two other executions scheduled the first week of February.