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Cleveland Daily Banner—Wednesday, January 6, 2016—9
NATIONAL BRIEFS
Florida man who killed 3
women scheduled for execution
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Oscar Ray
Bolin was first found guilty of
murdering three women nearly 30
years ago. In the decades since,
every one of the verdicts delivered
by juries in three separate trials
was reversed at least twice by
appeals courts, although ultimately he was convicted again in each
case: 10 times by 10 juries, to be
exact.
It now appears Bolin’s legal
pleas are coming to an end.
Unless an appeals court or the
U.S. Supreme Court steps in,
Bolin, 53, will be executed
Thursday at 6 p.m. in Florida
State Prison for the 1986 slaying
of Teri Lynn Matthews.
For Matthews’ family and relatives of the two other victims, it’s
about time.
“It will be in a sense, a closure,”
said Matthews’ mother, Kathleen
Reeves. “It’s been so long. The pain
doesn’t change. It’s just time for it.
It’s due. It’s past due.”
Bolin’s trials received widespread publicity in the Tampa Bay
area — but not just because of the
seemingly endless legal processes
or the brutal nature of the killings.
While on trial, Bolin and a
woman on his defense team fell in
love. Rosalie Martinez had been a
paralegal at the Hillsborough
Public Defender’s office who was
married to a prominent Tampa
attorney. Martinez divorced him
and married Bolin, on live TV, in
1996 — 10 years after the slayings.
Rosalie Bolin says her husband
is innocent in Matthews’ killing,
and she has become one of the
state’s most outspoken death
penalty opponents since her marriage to Oscar Ray Bolin.
Police said Bolin’s first Fl