State-Assisted Suicide, Florida Style

"Florida executed a man on Wednesday who had strangled a fellow prisoner to get a death sentence rather than serve a life term for sexually assaulting a child. He said he wanted to die but could not bring himself to commit suicide, and that he strangled Wigley in order to force the state to execute him. Blackwelder pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and told the judge at his sentencing hearing that if returned to prison he would kill "as many times as necessary" to be put to death. Abe Bonowitz, executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said the execution would show that 'If you don't like your life in prison, kill a prison worker or kill a fellow inmate and the state will assist in your suicide.'"