Florida Executes Former Police Officer Manuel Pardo Jr. for Killing Nine People in a 1986 Crime Spree
His lawyers argued he was mentally ill, but federal courts declined to intervene. He had spent nearly 25 years on Florida's death row.
Published
Manuel Pardo Jr., a former South Florida police officer, killed nine people during a 1986 crime spree. On December 11, 2012, after nearly 25 years on death row, Florida executed him.
Pardo, 56, was pronounced dead at 7:47 p.m. at Florida State Prison in Starke after a lethal injection, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Ann Howard said. His lawyers had tried to block the execution by arguing that he was mentally ill, but federal courts declined to intervene. Witnesses could not hear his final statement because of an apparent malfunction in the death chamber's sound system. Frank Judd, the nephew of victim Fara Quintero, read a statement thanking the state for helping bring closure to family members.
Pardo had been fired by the Florida Highway Patrol in 1979 for falsifying traffic tickets and was then hired by the police department in Sweetwater, a small city in Miami-Dade County. He was fired from that job after he lied to a court in the Bahamas, claiming he was an undercover agent, to help a colleague on trial for drug smuggling. Over 92 days in early 1986 he committed a series of robberies in which he killed six men and three women, most of whom officials said were involved with drugs. He was linked to the killings through credit cards stolen from the victims, and at his 1988 trial he was sentenced to death.
At his 1988 trial Pardo told jurors he was a soldier who had accomplished his mission, yet to the end he denied killing the three women among his nine victims.
Sources
- Manuel Pardo, Florida ex-cop known as 'Death Row Romeo,' executed for 1986 slayings of 9, NBC News (Associated Press)
- Killer executed, WUFT News