King gets stay of execution from Atlanta appeals court

TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA - An appeals court issued a stay of execution Tuesday for Amos King, who was scheduled to die next week for the murder of an elderly woman in central Florida 25 years ago. <br> <br> King appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court last week, asking it to find Florida&#39;s death sentencing law invalid as it did a similar Arizona law in June. <br> <br> However, in an unusual move, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta issued the stay based on a clemency issue, not the Arizona decision. <br> <br> King had been scheduled to die at 6 p.m. Monday. The ruling does not specify a time period for the reprieve. <br> <br> The state planned to execute King and Linroy Bottoson 11 months ago, but the men had been issued reprieves as both the U.S. and Florida high courts considered challenges to Arizona&#39;s capital punishment law and its relation to Florida law. <br> <br> King was convicted of murdering 68-year-old Natalie Brady in her Tarpon Springs home in 1977 and setting the place ablaze after slipping away from a work-release prison. <br> <br> Bottoson&#39;s execution remains scheduled for December 6.

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