Following a slew of conflicting court rulings, a federal appeals court has blocked the scheduled execution of a mass killer convicted of eight killings that jolted South Florida in the 1970s.
Photo: Fla. D.O.C.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision Tuesday came during a flurry of legal decisions over claims that 64-year-old John Errol Ferguson suffers from mental illness so severe he cannot be executed.
Ferguson, a paranoid schizophrenic with delusions he's the ``prince of God,'' had faced a planned lethal injection at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Florida's death chamber.
The appeals court set a schedule for motions that will likely delay the execution at least until the first week of November, if not longer.
(AP)
