John Richard Marek is almost out of here....

[Deanna's Daydreamer]

One less rape monster in the world?

Is nothing less than a safer world.

Get the DNA database in place, maintain the fullest strength of the criminal justice system by doing the 'rocket docket' of streamlining appeals, and prevent recidivsts from ever getting out.

Inch by inch, a safer world for women and girls.
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STARKE - The Florida Supreme Court turned down Death Row inmate John Richard Marek's last-ditch appeals this morning, bringing him closer to tonight's scheduled execution for a 1983 Broward County murder.

With the clock ticking toward his 6 p.m. execution, Marek had what may be his final meal between 11 a.m. and noon, according to a Department of Corrections spokeswoman.

Marek requested a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich with mayonnaise on whole wheat bread, onion rings, French fries, blueberries and strawberries with whipped cream, and a Dr Pepper.

According to prison rules, a Death Row inmate's last meal must cost no more than $40, and ingredients must be available locally.

Marek still has a number of appeals pending before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta and the U.S. Supreme Court, and a petition for clemency before the Florida Cabinet.

Marek's death warrant, his fourth, does not expire until noon Friday.

The last time an inmate on Florida's Death Row was executed for a murder committed in Broward County, flames and smoke shot from the condemned man's head as he received three jolts of 2,000-volt electricity.

At 6 p.m. today inside Florida State Prison, barring a last-minute judicial reprieve, Marek, 47, will go to his death.

Unlike Jesse Tafero, 43, the convicted cop killer executed in Florida's electric chair 19 years ago, Marek will be strapped to a gurney and administered a lethal dose of chemicals.

Marek was convicted along with Raymond Wigley in the kidnapping, rape and murder of Adela Marie Simmons, 45. Simmons' nude, battered, burned and strangled body was found June 17, 1983, in a lifeguard shack on Dania Beach.

The Barry University administrator and widowed mother of two had last been seen alive the night before when she left her friend, Jean Trach, in her broken-down car on Florida's Turnpike in Martin County and took a ride with Marek and Wigley to get help.

The 25 years since have been long and painful for Simmons' daughters, Vivienne Yao, of Miami Shores, and Aileen Simmons Bantau, of Austin, Texas.

They will not attend Marek's execution, but Bantau's husband and Trach's son and daughter plan to attend.

Instead, Yao and Trach will share a meal together and remember their lost loved one.

"We don't want to ever celebrate anyone's death," Yao said in an interview Tuesday. "But we do want to honor the life of my mother. We would like not to spend another minute of our lives on him."

Marek's 25 years on Death Row has far exceeded the average 12.31-year stay. His odyssey through the court system has included at least nine appeals to the Florida Supreme Court, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Since 1984, home for the condemned man, originally from Fort Worth, Texas, has been a 6 x 9 x 9.5-foot cell in Florida State Prison near Starke.

In that time, he has had only three visitors. In 2005 and 2006, pen pals from Great Britain visited, and in May, Marion Dollinger, 28, of Eppelheim, Germany, identified herself as Marek's girlfriend when she visited, said Gretl Plessinger, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Corrections.

In his 1984 trial, Marek testified that he was a "hillbilly Texan" incapable of telling a lie, let alone murdering someone. He also testified that he drank dozens of beers on the day, fell asleep in the truck as he drove south with Wigley and Simmons and did not know there had been a murder until he was arrested.

Wigley testified before his death in prison at the hands of another inmate that he raped and beat Simmons, and that Marek strangled her.

On May 11, two days before Marek's last appointment with the executioner, the Florida Supreme Court intervened and granted a temporary postponement to hear claims from prison inmates who said Wigley confessed to them that he was the actual killer, not Marek.

Marek's would be the 68th Florida execution since the death penalty was reinstated in 1979. But it would be only the second execution out of Broward County since that time.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report

[Deanna's Daydreamer]

More than two decades after the murder of a Broward County woman, the man convicted of killing Adella Marie Simmons was executed Wednesday evening.

John Richard Marek died at 6:33 p.m. Wednesday at Florida State Prison near Starke.

An attorney for Marek filed an appeal with the Florida Supreme Court to halt Wednesday's scheduled execution. Attorney Martin McClain filed the appeal Monday evening. Earlier that day, the attorney had asked a Broward County circuit judge to delay the execution and hear testimony from a new witness, state prison inmate Lee Johnson. The attorney said Johnson would testify Marek's co-defendant Raymond Wigley said he killed Adela Marie Simmons in 1983.

A prosecutor reminded the Broward judge that six other inmates already testified about Wigley's confession, and the judge had dismissed those claims.

The judge rejected Monday's request.

Marek will be executed by lethal injection for the 1983 kidnapping, rape and murder of Adella Marie Simmons after her car broke down on Florida's Turnpike. Marek and Wigley stopped and persuaded Simmons to ride with them to a service station. They instead took her to a beach about 60 miles away where she was strangled with a bandana after being sexually assaulted. Her body was found in a lifeguard shack on Dania Beach.

Marek "deserves anything the country wants to give him," said Simmons' friend, Jean Trach, who was with her that night. "She had no choice. She died a horrible death. They burned her, raped her, beat her up and strangled her."

Marek was last scheduled to die in May, but courts intervened. In a telephone interview then from her Miami home in May, Trach said she and Simmons were returning to Miami from a vacation in Clearwater on June 16, 1983, when her car began stalling.

As the Barry University co-workers neared Jupiter on the turnpike, it stalled again and would not restart.

Marek and Wigley stopped their pickup truck and offered to help.

While Marek talked to them, Trach said, Wigley stood off in the darkness.
Trach was suspicious of the men.

"I had a very bad feeling. I didn't like this man," she said of Marek. "But I was terrified of the other man (Wigley) because he never moved."
The men offered to take one of them to the next toll booth, so they could call for help.

Trach didn't want to go with them and argued that Simmons shouldn't either.
"She said, 'You've got to be able to trust somebody, sometime,"' Trach said. "She got in and they drove away. That was the last time I saw her alive.

"In retrospect, she saved my life. There were guns in the truck," she said.

Marek and Wigley were convicted in 1984. Wigley was sentenced to life in prison, but was killed behind bars in 2000.

A police officer stopped Marek and Wigley about 3:30 a.m. as they walked away from a Dania Beach lifeguard stand. He later recounted that Marek seemed to be the dominant one. They then got into a pickup truck -- later determined to be stolen -- and drove away.

About 7 a.m., Simmons' body was found inside the tower. That evening, Wigley was arrested in Daytona Beach, driving the truck. Inside, agents found a gold watch, gold pendant and gold earring belonging to Simmons and a gun. Marek was arrested at Daytona Shores.

Marek testified at his trial that after they picked up Simmons, he fell asleep. When he awoke, he said the woman was not in the truck. He testified Wigley told him he had dropped her off at a gas station. He testified he again fell asleep and when he woke up, he was on the beach.

Marek testified he never saw the victim's body inside the lifeguard tower because it was dark.

Fingerprints found at the lifeguard tower matched both Wigley and Marek, but only Marek's prints were found inside the observation deck, where the body was found.

Wigley testified that the victim was forced to perform oral sex and repeatedly sexually assaulted.

Both men were convicted of Simmons' slaying, but only Marek got a death sentence.

Trach, now 76, said in May she had no intention of going to Starke to watch Marek die.

"I don't want for him to take any more time from my life," she said. "I've been terrified of this man."

Marek's execution is Florida's 68th since the death penalty was reinstated in 1979.
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link includes a riveting video about this case
http://cbs4.com/local/john.marek.supreme.2.1134764.html

[Paula's Pedophile Poet]

Inch by inch...for women and girls.

I approve of this innuendo.