Tuesday, 3-24-98---


FLORIDA:

Leo Jones, who had challenged the constitutionality of Florida's use of a 75-year-old electric chair, died there today for the murder of a police officer.
Jones' attorneys objected after the March 25, 1997, fiery death of Pedro Medina. The problem had led to a nearly yearlong halt in executions in Florida,
which ended Monday with the execution of confessed serial killer Gerald Stano.
Jones was pronounced dead at 7:11 a.m. He was condemned for the 1981 slaying of Thomas Szafranski, who was struck in the head by a sniper's
bullet while sitting in his patrol car in downtown Jacksonville.
"In the hearts of us all, it is long overdue," Thomas Pialorsi, who was president of the Jacksonville Fraternal Order of Police when Szafranski was shot,
said Monday.
Jones, 47, confessed to the shooting, saying he killed the officer because of police beatings. But he later denied the killing, saying the confesseion was coerced.
In his appeals, he noted the statements of a dozen people who said another man had confessed to the killing.
Jones' appeal for a stay to the Florida Supreme Court and separate appeal to a federal judge were rejected Monday.
Jones becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be executed this year in Florida, and the 41st overall since that state resumed capital punishment in 1979.
Jones becomes the 15th condemned inmate to be executed this year in the USA, and the 447th overall since America resumed executions on Jan. 17, 1977.

(sources: Associated Press and Rick Halperin)