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Florida Supreme Court Sets Date to Hear Mills Appeal
The Associated Press
Published: May 3, 2001

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday said it will wait until June 6 to hear an appeal to reinstate the death sentence for Gregory Mills, who was convicted in the 1979 murder of an elderly man.

The state attorney general filed an appeal with the state's high court Wednesday, one day after Circuit Judge O.H. Eaton Jr., issued a stay of execution and set aside Mills' death sentence.

Mills, 43, of Sanford, had been scheduled to die Wednesday for fatally shooting 73-year-old James Wright during a home burglary.

In a five-page brief, assistant attorneys general Kenneth Nunnelley and Judy Taylor Rush disputed Eaton's reasons for calling off the execution, claiming that the new evidence was not strong enough to justify granting a stay.

In Eaton's ruling Tuesday, he questioned why the trial judge had imposed the death penalty when jurors recommended a life sentence and challenged the credibility of the star witness at Mills' trial.

Eaton also called "improper" the trial judge's accepting a draft order prepared by the State Attorney's Office denying Mills' appeal for post-conviction relief without any input from Mills' attorneys.

AP-ES-05-03-01 2216EDT