Parkinson’s disease argued to prevent execution

The attorneys Tuesday evening filed a motion for a stay and a broader brief that also argued Cole should be spared execution because of abuse he suffered as a teen at the state’s notorious Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys. Gov. Ron DeSantis on July 29 signed a death warrant for Cole, who was convicted in the 1994 murder of a Florida State University student in the Ocala National Forest.

The motion and the brief said the Supreme Court should require a Marion County circuit judge to hold an evidentiary hearing on the Parkinson’s disease issue. The brief said Cole, who has had Parkinson’s symptoms since 2017, “experiences shaking in both of his arms from his neck to his fingertips and in his legs.”

Cole’s lawyers also wrote that he “faces a substantial risk of illness by injury and needless suffering.”

“When placing an intravenous line, each failed attempt creates a one-and-done for that vein,” the brief said. “Each attempt is singularly painful, and the pain will only escalate with each successive attempt to place an intravenous line. Should FDOC (the Florida Department of Corrections) fail to find a peripheral vein in Cole’s arms or legs, the lethal injection protocol directs the placement of a central intravenous line. The skill needed to do this is beyond an average person capable of placing intravenous lines in the arms or legs. The central vein location includes the groin, the neck, and below the collarbone.”

But Marion County Circuit Judge Robert Hodges last week rejected the Parkinson’s disease argument as part of a broader ruling that allowed the planned execution to move forward. Hodges wrote, in part, that the claim was “untimely” because Cole has long known about the Parkinson’s symptoms but did not raise the issue until after the death warrant was signed.

Hodges also wrote that he found the Parkinson’s disease argument “without merit” and that Cole “failed to allege that medical personnel have previously had problems finding a vein in his arm or that he has previously suffered pain during the placement of an intravenous line. Instead, he merely speculates that he will suffer because of his involuntary body movements.”

“The placement of an intravenous line in a patient with body movements is neither unique nor rare in the medical field,” Hodges added.