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Appeals Court Blocks Execution of Mentally Ill Florida Prisoner

HeadlineOct 24, 2012

A federal appeals court has blocked the execution of a severely mentally ill man in Florida. John Ferguson was scheduled to die Tuesday night for a string of killings in the 1970s. But the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a last-minute stay, accepting lawyers’ argument he is too mentally ill to be put to death. Ferguson is a paranoid schizophrenic who’s claimed he believes he is the “Prince of God.”

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