Judge Denies Evidentiary Hearing, Stay Of Execution For Diaz

Video: Lawyers For Angel Diaz Seek Delay Of Execution
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Judge Denies Evidentiary Hearing, Stay Of Execution For Diaz

POSTED: 9:19 pm EST December 1, 2006
UPDATED: 9:29 pm EST December 1, 2006


MIAMI -- A circuit judge denied Friday a request by a death row inmate set for execution this month to reconsider testimony by a key witness who later recanted.

Circuit Judge Amy Steel Donner also declined to issue a stay of execution for Angel Diaz, said Suzanne Myers Keffer, Diaz's attorney.

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Diaz is scheduled to die Dec. 13 for the fatal shooting of a Miami topless club manager in 1979. Another inmate at the Miami-Dade County Jail, Ralph Gajus, testified at his 1984 trial that Diaz, who spoke only in broken English, used hand signs to imply he was the triggerman.


The Florida Supreme Court voted 5-2 Wednesday to send the case back to the trial court to consider a recently obtained sworn statement from Gajus saying that he lied on the witness stand.

Gajus said in the statement that he was angry with Diaz for leaving him out of a plan to escape and police promised to help him with his case if he testified. Gajus later was sentenced to 20 years in prison for second-degree murder.

Keffer declined further comment. Diaz has until Monday to appeal the trial court's ruling.

Diaz also has appealed to the high court on other grounds.

He was previously convicted of another murder in his native Puerto Rico, and also escaped from prisons there and in Connecticut.

Previous Story:
November 30, 2006: Lawyers For Angel Diaz Seek Delay Of Execution
November 27, 2006: Miami Killer Asks Supreme Court To Block Execution