STARKE, Fla. — A man whose death sentence for a double murder was overturned was executed by injection Wednesday for another slaying — the 1976 stabbing death of fellow prison inmate.
Bennie Demps, 49, was executed for killing Alfred Sturgis, who was attacked in his cell. The dying Sturgis told a prison guard that Demps and another inmate held him down while a third inmate stabbed him.
In his final statement, Demps proclaimed his innocence and asked his lawyer for an investigation into what he said was a very painful procedure. He said it took almost an hour to prepare him for execution and said he was cut in the leg and groin.
Gov. Jeb Bush's spokesman said paperwork was delayed and technicians had trouble finding a vein for the injection. An official at the Department of Corrections said the procedure was carried out properly and Demps "suffered no undue discomfort."
A few hours later, Oklahoma executed one of two men convicted of killing a math teacher in 1985.
Roger James Berget, 39, was executed by injection for killing Rick Patterson, a 33-year-old math teacher at Moore Central Mid-High.
Berget and Mikell Smith were accused of carjacking Patterson from an Oklahoma City supermarket parking lot. The men forced Patterson into the trunk of his car and drove to a deserted area near I-40 where they ordered him out of the car and shot him.
Berget, who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, also confessed to killing another man. The death sentence given to Smith was reduced on appeal in 1992 to life in prison without parole.