Glen Ocha, 47, is scheduled to die at 6 p.m. EDT inside Florida State Prison for the 1999 strangulation of an Osecola County woman he had met in a bar. An anonymous executioner, who is paid $150 for his services, will inject a lethal cocktail of chemicals to stop Ocha's heart and his breathing.

Bush is a convert to Roman Catholicism and the pope opposed capital punishment.

"I have a duty to carry out the law, and in this case I actually was prepared to delay the execution out of courtesy for and respect for the pope's passing," Bush told reporters Tuesday in Tallahassee. "But I also have a duty to have sympathy for the victims, and so we checked with the victims, and they were already prepared and ready to be at the execution and to be there so they could have closure, and I decided to carry it out. It was a grotesque crime."

Bush's decision drew criticism from Abe Bonowitz, director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, who had called Ocha's execution, "suicide by governor." Ocha has dropped his appeals and fired his attorneys.

"Instead of honoring Pope John Paul II, Gov. Bush has today chosen to mock him. The pope has been outspoken about the value of all life, and repeatedly called for the end to the use of the death penalty," Bonowitz said.

Greg L. Hill, who was appointed as a backup attorney for Ocha, met with his client Monday evening at the prison and said Tuesday he will file no last-minute appeal to block the execution.

"That's his desire to accept responsibility for his actions," Hill said

Ocha, who changed his name in prison to Raven Raven, received a final meal Tuesday morning of a fried chicken breast, potato salad, kernel corn, two biscuits and a large glass of Pepsi.

Ocha received final visits from two Catholic priests, the Rev. Dale Recinella of Macclenny and retired Bishop John Snyder from Jacksonville, plus a visit with his brother, Martin Ocha, said Sterling Ivey, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections.

Ocha pleaded guilty to the Oct. 5, 1999, killing of convenience store employee Carol Skjerva, 28 at his home in Osceola County.

He met her at a bar in Kissimmee, where he engraved beer mugs. He was drunk and high on Ecstasy when she drove him home and they had sex. He said he became enraged when Skjerva told Ocha she was going to tell her boyfriend and made fun of his anatomy.

He made her sit in a chair, got some rope from his garage and choked her three times until his arms got tired. He then hanged Skjerva from a kitchen door and drank a beer while she died.

After hiding her body inside a home entertainment system in his garage, Ocha took Skjerva's car and drove to Daytona Beach. He confessed to the killing when he was arrested for disorderly intoxication.

Ocha would not let a public defender present evidence to avoid execution. After the state Supreme Court affirmed his conviction in 2002, Ocha filed a motion with the trial court to drop his appeals and dismiss his attorneys. In May, the Supreme Court ordered the trial court to hold a hearing on his mental competency. He Ocha discharged his state lawyer, Mark Gruber, when he was ruled competent June 11.

Ocha has warned that he will kill again if he does not receive the death penalty.

"He had demonstrated the kind of behavior that was at times erratic," said Gruber, who fought to get Ocha ruled incompetent.

In a letter to Assistant Attorney General Stephen D. Ake, Ocha asked that his execution be carried out without delays. "Sir I wish for my execution to come swift and unhampered."

Court records show Ocha has exhibited suicidal behavior since 1978 when he asked police to shoot him. He once tied his jacket to his jail bars and attempted to hang himself. He has a long history of drug and alcohol abuse. After a two-year stint in the Army, he was given a general discharge for drug use.

Snurkowski said Ocha's case was recently reviewed by Osceola Circuit Judge Margaret Waller, who agreed to allow the 10th-grade dropout to end all of his appeals.

Of the 16 inmates executed under death warrants signed by Bush, seven have dropped appeals and did not fight their execution.

Ocha will be the 60th person executed in Florida since the 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty and the first since May 26, when John Blackwelder who was so intent on being executed that he killed a fellow inmate and pleaded guilty.

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On the Net:

Florida Department of Corrections: http://www.dc.state.fl.us/

Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty: http://www.fadp.org

AP-ES-04-05-05 1258EDT