AP Online Regional - US via NewsEdge Corporation : STARKE, Fla._As Florida plans to execute a man on the 25th anniversary of capital punishment's reinstatement, the state is again facing scrutiny _ a twist that state prison officials call a coincidence.

John Blackwelder, a 49-year-old convicted child molester, said he killed a man in prison just so he would be sentenced to die. Unless he receives a last-minute stay, Blackwelder is scheduled to die at 6 p.m. EDT Tuesday.

"I made it clear, I want off this world. I can't kill myself. I'm not suicidal. But I sure can make it hard for everybody else," Blackwelder told the Florida Supreme Court in 2000. He has dropped all his appeals and is seeking execution.

Abe Bonowitz, executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, called Blackwelder's actions "governor-assisted suicide."

When the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, Florida had no executioner, no written procedure on how to conduct an execution and had not used the electric chair in 15 years.

Despite those problems, on May 25, 1979, John Spenkelink, a drifter convicted of killing a traveling companion, became the first man put to death in Florida since the court's ruling.

Since executions resumed in the United States, 910 people have been executed, including 58 in Florida, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Florida leads the nation in the number of inmates freed from death row in the same period _ 25.

Among the 44 inmates strapped into Florida's electric chair, known as "Old Sparky," were serial killer Ted Bundy, "black widow" killer Judy Buenoano and death row sage Willie Darden. Another 14 inmates, including serial killer Aileen Wuornos, died by injection.

The chair has twice malfunctioned, with flames leaping from the heads of two inmates. After pictures of one electrocuted inmate's bloody face surfaced on the internet, the state did away with the chair.

Six of the last 10 inmates executed in Florida have dropped their appeals and asked to die.

Unlike Blackwelder, the 30-year-old Spenkelink fought his execution. His appeal made five trips to the U.S. Supreme Court.

David Kendall, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who represented Spenkelink, thought his client had a good chance to avoid execution.

"We believed this was an excellent case for a commutation of sentence," Kendall said in a telephone interview. "Everyone expected something to happen so John Spenkelink would not be executed."

Prior to trial, Spenkelink rejected an offer to plead guilty to second-degree murder and avoid the death penalty.

"He felt it was not murder, but self-defense," Kendall recalled.

Then-Gov. Bob Graham, who is now a U.S. senator, signed the warrant that would end Spenkelink's life. Demonstrators beat a drum outside the governor's mansion, then filled the lobby of Graham's office the next day.

"What a nightmare that was," said Jim Smith, who was Florida attorney general at the time. "We were doing what we had to do to make sure that the execution occurred. ... This was the law of the state and it was my job to see that it was carried out."

David Brierton, who was Florida State Prison superintendent at the time, declined to be interviewed.

Brierton was criticized for his plans to keep the blinds drawn in the execution chamber until Spenkelink was strapped in. Brierton hoped to prevent a circus-like atmosphere at the prison like that when Gary Gilmore asked to be executed before Utah's firing squad in 1977.

Instead, the closed blinds led to accusations that Spenkelink had been mistreated. An investigation found no such evidence.

Brierton said earlier he had two fears _ the chair wouldn't work or the governor would call five minutes after it was over and say there was a stay.

But there would be no stay. After taking two shots of Jack Daniels, Spenkelink was put to death.

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On the Net:

Florida Department of Corrections: http://www.dc.state.fl.us/

Death Penalty Information Center: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/ .end (paragraph)<<AP Online Regional - US -- 05/23/04>>

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