Florida completes execution of man 30 years after murder and rape of siblings

As reported in this AP article, a “A Florida man convicted of killing a college freshman and raping the murder victim’s older sister while the siblings camped in a national forest 30 years ago was executed Thursday.”  Here is more:

Loran Cole, 57, received a lethal injection and was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. at Florida State Prison for the 1994 killing of the 18-year-old student. Cole also was serving two life sentences for rape.

Cole and a friend, William Paul, befriended the two college students in the Ocala National Forest, court records showed. After talking around a fire, the men offered to take the siblings to see a pond.  While away from the campsite, Cole and Paul jumped the victims and robbed them, according to the records.

The brother, 18, who was a student at Florida State University, was beaten and had his throat slit and left in the forest.  His sister, then a 21-year-old senior at Eckerd College, was taken back to the campsite, where Cole tied her up and raped her, according to the record.  The woman was left tied to a tree overnight and raped again the next day. She eventually managed to free herself and flagged down a driver for help.  Police found her brother’s body lying face down on the ground, according to court records.

Paul and Cole were both convicted of first-degree murder.  Paul was sentenced to life in prison….

The U.S. Supreme Court denied Cole’s final appeal earlier Thursday.  His lawyers had raised several points in seeking a stay of execution, including the fact that Cole was an inmate at a state-run reform school where he and other boys were beaten and raped.  The state has since apologized for the abuse and this year passed a law authorizing reparations for inmates at the now-shuttered reform school.  The lawyers also argued Cole shouldn’t be executed because he was mentally ill and had brain damage and Parkinson’s disease.