By EVA KIS
RAIFORD — Gov. Jeb Bush said Tuesday morning that he might stay an execution scheduled for that night in deference to the pope’s passing Saturday.
No such order came. But then, Glen James Ocha would not have wanted it.
Ocha, 47, was sentenced to die for the Oct. 5, 1999 murder of a convenience store employee in Osceola County after pleading guilty at his trial and refusing to allow his public defender to present any evidence. Later, he waived all possible appeals and dismissed his attorneys.
In his final statement, afforded to every death row inmate before execution is carried out, a coherent and contrite Ocha explained himself, beginning with an apology to his victim and her family and friends.
“This is the punishment that I deserve. I am taking responsibility for my actions… this is my responsibility I have to take,” he said.
Attorney Gregory Hill, Ocha’s standby counsel, read a statement Ocha dictated at a press conference following the execution.
“I unjustly took the life of Carol Skjerva. I have made my peace with my God and go now to face His judgment.”
Twenty-seven witnesses, none from Ocha’s family or Skjerva’s immediate family — who are not allowed to attend the execution — watched silently as a lethal injection was administered to Ocha at 6:01 p.m.
He was pronounced dead at 6:09 p.m.
Department of Corrections spokesman Sterling Ivey spent part of his day with Ocha, saying he woke up at 5 a.m. in what Ivey characterized as a “very positive” mood.
“He indicated to officers outside his cell that he was looking forward to his execution,” Ivey said.
However, Ocha did elect to take the sedative offered to condemned prisoners before their sentence is carried out.
Though death row inmates are not granted special privileges on their final day, they do receive a traditional last meal. Personally prepared by the prison’s food service director, Ocha requested a chicken breast, potato salad, corn, two biscuits and a large glass of Pepsi served at 10:30 a.m., Ivey said.
Instead of watching television, Ocha spent Tuesday morning with his brother, Martin Ocha, and Chaplain Dale Recinella. Recinella stayed until late in the afternoon, conversing with Ocha in his jail cell, Ivey said.
Protesters across the street from the prison numbered more than 30 by the time Ocha’s execution was scheduled to begin.
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty Director Abe Bonowitz addressed Gov. Bush, but not for deciding not to delay Ocha’s execution — rather, for the hypocrisy he sees in the Catholic governor continuing to sign death warrants.
“The pope had called for an end to the use of the death penalty,” he said. Bush “is mocking the pope by going forward with it.”
Bonowitz contended Ocha wanted to die before he murdered Skjerva. Court documents show Ocha previously asked police officers to shoot him during a 1978 altercation.
“This is suicide by governor,” Bonowitz said. “Society deserves to be safe, but we don’t need the death penalty.”
Ocha was the 60th prisoner in Florida to be executed since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
Executions are carried out after the governor signs a death warrant issued by a court, after the defendant is found guilty.
A private citizen serves as executioner and is paid $150 to carry out the death sentence, which in this case involved injecting a lethal chemical cocktail intravenously.
Department of Corrections official Debra Buchanan said an ad seeking voluntary executioners was placed in newspapers statewide in 1978, offering that same amount of money for their services.
“We’re still working off the original list,” she said of the volume of responses.
State Attorney’s Office spokesman Spencer Mann said a violent crime needs to satisfy several criteria before prosecutors can seek the death penalty.
“Was the murder heinous or atrocious, no mercy given?” he said. Also, “whether there were issues of torture” and lack of “regard for the humanity of the victim.”
Mann said those stipulations then are weighed against “potential mitigating circumstances, such as whether the defendant had a criminal history, whether there are any mental competency issues or other factors that would speak on the defendant’s behalf.”
Though Ocha’s mental status was disputed by his first attorney, Mark Gruber, a judge eventually declared him competent.
On the night of Oct. 5, 1999, Ocha, drunk and high on Ecstasy, met Skjerva at the Kissimmee bar where he worked, an Osceola County arrest warrant shows. She gave him a ride to his home, where they had consensual intercourse.
However, when Skjerva said she would tell her boyfriend about the incident and mocked Ocha’s anatomy, he became angry.
The documents state Ocha retrieved a rope from his garage with which he attempted to strangle Skjerva three times. In his impaired state, he was too weak to kill her, so he hanged her from a kitchen door and drank a beer as he watched her choke to death.
When he was arrested for disorderly intoxication the following day in Volusia County, Ocha confessed to killing Skjerva.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
