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Thread: Oscar Ray Bolin, Jr. - Florida Execution - January 7, 2016

  1. #11
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    One killer, two decades, few clear answers

    A film crew for Discovery ID was in town this week, stirring up ghosts and the story of a man who did not die no matter how many times juries said he should.

    I was a student at USF when it happened, driving to classes past the Church's Fried Chicken where Natalie Blanche Holley was a night manager. They found two more victims on a December day in 1986, a bank clerk named Teri Lynn Matthews and Stephanie Collins, a pretty high school senior who vanished from the Carrollwood suburbs, where it was supposed to be safe.

    The case broke a couple of years later on a phone call that led detectives to a rapist doing time in Ohio. I was a reporter then, and when they brought Oscar Ray Bolin, this long-haul trucker and carnie nicknamed Needles, to court, he was whip-skinny and mean-looking. His eyes were flat.

    At his trial, the mothers sat side by side, there for each other and their daughters. The first jury took only 25 minutes to say he should die for what he did (the electric chair back then.) Stephanie's mother called it the best beginning they could hope for. "It's not over yet," she said. It wasn't.

    He was tried, convicted and had his case overturned, retried and convicted again. It wasn't that the more than 100 jurors who sat across from him over the years weren't sure. One jury took all of seven minutes to say death, barely enough time to vote, write it down and press the buzzer for the bailiff.

    More than 20 years passed and here was Bolin still, in suits finer than what his lawyers wore, Armani, we decided in the press room. They were given to him by a woman who worked at the Public Defender's Office and then, bizarrely, married him in a particularly cruel sideshow. He had glasses, gray hair and a paunch, like some office worker, and always that flat stare.

    The terrible crime scene photos kept coming back, Stephanie in the Keds and slouch socks the girls wore at Chamberlain High back then. The mothers came over and over, side by side. Last year, Holley's mother got the news at the nursing home that he was convicted again. She died weeks later.

    All of this will give believers in the death penalty reason to beat their chests against endless appeals. Those opposed can say we should have put him away for life the first time.

    Here is a truth: There was no great mistake in his cases, no sure place to lay blame. If we intend to kill someone for killing someone, we scrutinize every detail of his arrest and trial. We protect his rights. Even his.

    The law evolves. It is open to interpretation. Did Bolin waive spousal privilege when he left a note in an attempted jailhouse suicide, saying they should talk to his wife? Who, as it turned out, knew a lot?

    After 10 trials, two death sentences stuck. Bolin is in a 6- by 9-foot cell on Florida's death row, eating meals with a spork, showering every other day — and likely awaiting word of what he can do next to stop what is coming.

    Two of his attorneys, among the best I was lucky enough to see, have died. The first judge is long gone. Mark Ober, once Bolin's lawyer, is state attorney. Craig Latimer, then a homicide sergeant, is elections supervisor. And this week, some of us still around sat with a film crew, trying to give answers that made sense after all these years.

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/...nswers/2114894
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  2. #12
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On July 1, 2013, Bolin's habeas petition was DENIED in Federal District Court.

    http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal...1571/247339/31

    On August 2, 2013, Bolin filed an appeal in the US Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/cir...ca11/13-13539/

  3. #13
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    On December 2, 2013, the US Supreme Court DENIED Bolin's certiorari petition.

    Lower Ct: Supreme Court of Florida
    Case Nos.: (SC08-2148)
    Decision Date: February 21, 2013
    Rehearing Denied: June 27, 2013

  4. #14
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Rosalie and Oscar Bolin, pictured together in this recent photo at Florida State Prison


    How a Florida Woman and Convicted Serial Killer on Death Row Met and Fell in Love


    By Gwen Gowen and Alex Valiente
    ABC News

    Rosalie Bolin says Oscar Ray Bolin is the love of her life, despite the fact that he is a convicted killer on death row.

    "It's a love that I never experienced before," Rosalie recently told ABC News' "20/20."

    Oscar Ray Bolin was convicted of the 1986 murders of three women, 25-year-old Natalie Blanche Holley, 26-year-old Teri Lynn Matthews and 17-year-old Stephanie Collins. Though Oscar is awaiting execution at Florida State Prison's death row for two of the three murder convictions, Rosalie said she strongly believes Bolin is innocent.

    "I never, never, ever thought for a second that he was guilty of those three murders," she said.

    1995: Rosalie and Oscar First Meet


    In 1995, Rosalie was married to a prominent Tampa attorney and they had four daughters. But despite her family's wealth and success, something was missing, Rosalie said.

    "I wanted to break out. I wanted to be loved like I've never been loved before, passion, someone to put me on an emotional pedestal, not with material things," Rosalie told "20/20" in an interview that first aired in November 1996.

    Rosalie and Oscar met when she was working in the public defender's office in Hillsborough County and was assigned to his case. Looking through the evidence, she said she became convinced he was innocent, and after working together closely for two years, they fell in love.

    Prior to his arrest for the murders, Bolin had been serving time in Ohio for kidnapping and rape. He did plead guilty to kidnapping and raping a woman at gunpoint. When police came to arrest him for the murders of the three young Tampa women, he was in an Ohio prison serving 25 to 75 years in Ohio for kidnapping and rape.

    "He pled guilty to that crime," Rosalie said. "And I believe, because I know Oscar very well, if he had committed these three murders, he would have pled to something other than death. ... He's always professed his innocence."

    Oct. 5, 1996: Rosalie and Oscar Marry

    Rosalie and Oscar decided to marry, not only out of their growing love, but also in an attempt to draw media attention to his case, Rosalie said.

    "If I was his wife, I thought people would listen to me. I was a prominent member of the community. I knew three presidents. [I knew] senators. If Rosalie believes in this, let's get on board," Rosalie said.

    Oct. 9, 1996: Oscar Is Sentenced to Death

    Just three days after their wedding, instead of a honeymoon, the newlywed couple was in a courtroom when Oscar was sentenced to death on Oct. 9, 1996, for the murder of Teri Lynn Matthews.

    Since then, Rosalie has worked to prove her husband's innocence and get her husband home.

    "The evidence to me doesn't support a conviction. It does not. Oscar Bolin, for me, has not received a fair trial," Rosalie said.

    Even now, while working full time as a licensed private investigator and mitigation specialist on other cases, Rosalie said she has analyzed every document, photo and measurement from Oscar's case.

    "The shoe tracks were size 10. I know what size my husband wears. He wears a size 8," Rosalie said. "The shoes don't match. Fingerprints don't match."

    Since then, the former truck driver has been convicted multiple times -- he's been tried three times in the Matthews case, three times in the Collins case and four times in the Holley case.

    Dec. 21, 2012: Convict That Rosalie Helped Is Acquitted


    Besides Oscar's case, Rosalie also looked into the case of Seth Penalver, who was in the cell next to Oscar Bolin on death row.

    "I would go to visitation. You know, and I'd see Rosalie in visitation with Oscar," Penalver told "20/20." I heard a lot of good things about her, you know, getting people new trials, people getting exonerated."

    After Penalver asked for her help, Rosalie said she unearthed a document showing police paid a key witness to testify against Seth at his trial.

    "They paid one of the main witnesses with crime-stopping money and hid that from the defense. He was a drug addict, said whatever the cops wanted him to say," said Rosalie.

    Penalver got a new trial in 2012 and was cleared of all charges against him on Dec. 21, 2012.

    "She's just that good, just that good. She finds the lies. She finds where things are wrong," Penalver said.

    2014: Office of the Inspector General Calls for Review of FBI Agent's Cases

    Rosalie found support from FBI special agent-turned-whistle blower Fred Whitehurst. For over 20 years, Whitehurst has been working to expose corruption at the FBI Crime Lab and one agent in particular, Michael Malone.

    "Anything that Michael Malone touched, any evidence that he touch is not to be trusted," Whitehurst told "20/20." It can't be. The U.S. government agrees with that."

    Malone, the former senior examiner of hair and fibers for the FBI, was in charge of the hair and fiber evidence sent to the FBI in all three of Oscar's murder trials.

    He testified that he "was the agent in charge at the FBI lab of this particular case. I was finding a black wool, very dark black wool fiber that showed up in all three cases." He also linked Bolin by hair to the Collins case.

    But in 2014, the Office of the Inspector General released a report that said, "Michael Malone repeatedly created scientifically unsupportable lab reports and provided false, misleading or inaccurate testimony at criminal trials."

    The report went on to list Oscar's case among 52 others that should be reviewed.

    "In my mind, Michael Malone is a serial killer with a lab coat," Rosalie said. "There have been potentially people who have been executed based upon evidence that Michael Malone handled. That's frightening."

    Malone declined numerous requests from ABC News for comment on this report.

    Present: Where Oscar's Case Stands Today

    Oscar and Rosalie are about to celebrate their 19th wedding anniversary. Through appeal after appeal, conviction after conviction, Rosalie has supported Oscar through seven of his 11 murder trials,

    She visits Oscar twice a week at Florida State Prison, and he sends her love letters and hand drawn cards practically every day. Though no conjugal visits are allowed on death row, Rosalie said it doesn't matter to her.

    One of Rosalie's daughters, Katherine, who is now 26, made a short documentary for a college project about her relationship with her mother and what is was like to meet Oscar for the first and only time.

    In the documentary called, "It's Nice to Finally Meet You," Katherine got emotional while speaking with Oscar. Katherine and her sisters declined requests for an interview with "20/20."

    "It's unfair to make [my children] have to go through the same things that I do, so I completely understand, and I respect that," Rosalie said.

    In the next few weeks, Bolin will have two new hearings: one about a claim that another serial killer confessed to the murder of Teri Lynn Matthews and the other about whether the work of a discredited FBI agent should have an impact on Bolin's conviction for Stephanie Collins' murder.

    Anita Holley, the sister of murder victim Natalie Blanche Holley, blames Rosalie for dragging out Oscar's execution.

    "She actually went on national television proclaiming his innocence. She was enjoying the notoriety, and that just -- oh, my goodness," Holley told "20/20."

    Rosalie said, "I feel really sorry for [the victims' families]. I really do. I feel them. I have four beautiful children. I can't imagine. But I want them to understand that I wouldn't have dedicated 20 years of my life on something I don't truly believe in."

    And Rosalie said she will continue to fight for Oscar even if he is executed.

    "I'm just not going to sit down and be quiet because they can," Rosalie said. "You know, I will fight this 'til my last breath."

    http://abcnews.go.com/US/florida-wom...ry?id=33212335
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  5. #15
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    Gov. Rick Scott has signed a death warrant setting his execution for January 7, 2016.

  6. #16
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    Gov. Rick Scott signs death warrant for Oscar Ray Bolin Jr., schedules execution for January

    Less than 24 hours after Florida's most recent execution of a death row inmate, Republican Gov. Rick Scott has signed another death warrant.

    Oscar Ray Bolin, Jr. killed three women in the Tampa Bay area in 1986. He was sentenced to death for two of them and is serving a life sentence on the third.

    Scott's office sent a letter and signed death warrant today to Warden John Palmer at the Florida State Prison. Bolin's execution is scheduled for 6 p.m. Jan. 7.

    Download Bolin Warrant.

    Bolin is being put to death for the 1986 murder of Teri Lynn Matthews, whom he abducted from the Land O' Lakes Post Office in the early morning hours of Dec. 5, 1986.

    As Scott's office recounted: Bolin brought Matthews' severely beaten body to the home of his 13-year-old half-brother, who reported that he saw the body wrapped in a sheet outside the home and heard moaning. Bolin bludgeoned Matthews with a wooden club, sprayed the her with a water hose and loaded her into a truck to dispose of her body. She was found wrapped in the sheet on the side of the road in Pasco County later that day with severe head injuries and stab wounds in her neck and body.

    Bolin appealed his case to federal court but his petition was denied in 2013, and the 11th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals also denied to review the case.

    Bolin has been convicted of two other murders in Hillsborough County. He is currently sentenced to death for the 1986 murder of Stephanie Collins and is serving a life sentence for the 1986 murder of Natalie Holley.

    Last night, at 7:36 p.m., the state of Florida put Jerry Correll to death for stabbing and killing his daughter, ex-wife, and her mother and sister in Orlando.

    Correll’s execution was the 22nd to take place in the death chamber at Florida State Prison since Scott took office in 2011 -- more than any other governor since the death penalty was reinstated in Florida in 1976.

    http://miamiherald.typepad.com/naked...r-january.html

  7. #17
    Senior Member CnCP Legend FFM's Avatar
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    The death warrant claims at the bottom of page 1 that the 11th Circuit denied habeas relief on 9/23/2013, but I can't find the decision anywhere. Anyone have a link to it?

  8. #18
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    I've just looked and can't find anything at all.

  9. #19
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Fact's Avatar
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    It's because the district court denied a COA and they didn't hear the case. The District Court decided the case in July and the Supreme Court denied cert in December.

    https://scholar.google.com/scholar_c...23,361,362,363
    Last edited by Fact; 10-30-2015 at 06:32 PM.

  10. #20
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Thanks for the info and link!

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