The Florida Attorney General’s Office on Monday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject an attempt to halt Thursday’s planned execution of convicted Charlotte County murderer James Ford.
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Lawyers for Ford appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday, a day after the Florida Supreme Court rejected arguments aimed at preventing the execution.
Ford’s lawyers contend that he had the mental and developmental age of a 14-year-old when he murdered Greg and Kimberly Malnory at a Charlotte County sod farm in 1997.
Ford was 36 at the time of the murders.
The attorneys have tried to draw a connection with a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision, known as Roper v. Simmons, that barred executing defendants who were under age 18 at the time of their crimes.
The Supreme Court said such executions would violate the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. But in two documents filed Monday, the attorney general’s office said the U.S. Supreme Court should not grant a stay of execution and should reject the arguments about Ford’s developmental age.
“Ford cites no case — federal or state — expanding Roper to an individual who was 18 or older at the time of the capital offense,” the attorney general’s office said in one of the documents.
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Jan. 10 signed a death warrant for Ford , who would be the first person executed in Florida this year.
Ford worked with Greg Malnory at the sod farm and made plans to go fishing on a Sunday with the couple at the farm, which was in a remote area, according to court documents.
The next day, another employee found the couple murdered. Greg Malnory was shot in the head, beaten and had his throat slit, while Kimberly Malnory was raped, beaten and shot, according to court documents.
The couple also had a 22-month-old daughter, who was left in a car seat in their pickup truck for more than 18 hours after the murders.