Dillbeck asks Florida Supreme Court for stay of execution

UPDATE - Florida’s Attorney General is asking the Florida Supreme Court to deny both Donald Dillbeck’s request for a stay of execution and his request for oral arguments in the case as his execution date approaches.

Dillbeck is scheduled to die by lethal injection next week for the 1990 murder of Faye Vann, who was stabbed to death in her car outside the Tallahassee Mall. Dillbeck was already serving a life sentence for the murder of a Lee County deputy and had escaped from a prison work detail days earlier.

“Last-minute stays of execution should be ‘the extreme exception, not the norm,” Senior Assistant Attorney General Charmaine Millsaps cited in the state’s response. She argued none of Dillbeck’s claims are “substantial” and urged justices to reject any attempt to expand the list of “mental conditions and illness” that would make someone ineligible for the death penalty.

The State also argued that the Florida Supreme Court’s “standard policy is not to conduct oral arguments in active warrant cases.” It contends by the time a death warrant is signed,  the state Supreme Court has already conducted two oral arguments over the span of appeals and “there is no need for a third.”

The Attorney General’s Office filed its response Monday afternoon. Another round of briefs are due at 3 p.m. Tuesday and the Florida Supreme Court could rule in Dillbeck’s case as early as Wednesday.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) - The Florida Supreme Court could decide this week if a man will be executed for a brutal stabbing in Tallahassee.

Donald Dillbeck is scheduled to die by lethal injection on February 23rd for the 1990 murder of Faye Vann. Vann was stabbed to death in the parking lot of the Tallahassee Mall.

The governor signed Dillbeck’s death warrant last month, and a circuit judge has already rejected Dillbeck’s request to halt his execution.

Dillbeck’s attorneys have now asked the Florida Supreme Court to stay his execution and schedule oral arguments in the case.

They want to present arguments on a condition called ND-PAE and evidence they say “casts doubt on the validity” of Dillbeck’s initial plea deal in connection with the murder of a Lee County deputy years earlier.

Defense attorneys argue that Neurobehavioral Disorder associated with Prenatal Alcohol Exposure is an “intellectual disability-equivalent condition” that would make Dillbeck “exempt from execution under the Eighth Amendment.” They also contend new evidence casts doubt on the validity of a prior murder plea citing Dillbeck’s “diminished capacity and possible insanity at the time of the crime, and of his probable incompetence to stand trial when he pleaded guilty.”

The state is expected to file its response later today, and defense attorneys’ final briefs in the case are due on Tuesday.

WCTV will continue to monitor the Florida Supreme Court docket and provide updates if oral arguments are scheduled or any new rulings are issued.

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