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Latest Appeal By Jimmy Ryce's Killer Rejected

MIAMI (CBSMiami) --  A Miami-Dade judge rejected the latest appeal on Wednesday by the convicted killer of Jimmy Ryce .

Juan Carlos Chavez  is set to be executed February 12, 2014 at 6 p.m. for Ryce's murder. Governor Rick Scott signed the death warrant for Chavez earlier this month.

According to our news partners the Miami Herald, the judge's decision paves the way for a series of appeals expected to be submitted the weeks before Chavez's execution.

Once the execution date was set, Chavez's lawyer asked Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Marc Schumacher, the judge who sentenced him to death, to stay the execution because of a pending appeal in federal court.  The judge declined his request, according to the paper.

Chaevez's lawyers have also tried to stop the execution due to concerns over the state's use of the sedative midazolam hydrochloride which is one of the drugs used in lethal injections. One of the defense lawyers contended it may constitute "cruel and unusual punishment."

According to the paper, Judge Schumacher cited a decision  by the Florida Supreme court in which a Miami killer who was executed with the drug last week, failed to prove that the drug presented"a serious risk of needless suffering."

Judge Schumacher said Chavez offered no proof that he could disprove the high court's findings, according to the paper.  He also denied Chavez's claim that he had been denied a proper clemency hearing by the governor.

On September 11, 1995, Ryce was dropped off by his school bus near his home in the Redland. Before Jimmy made it home, Chavez abducted him, ordering him at gunpoint into his truck.  Chavez drove Jimmy back to his trailer, where he ordered Jimmy to remove his clothes and then sexually battered him.  Chavez held Jimmy captive for over three and one-half hours before Chavez shot and killed Jimmy when he tried to escape

Two days after the murder, Chavez dismembered Jimmy's body, filled three planters with Jimmy's remains, and sealed the planters with concrete.

Chavez was arrested three months later after Jimmy's book bag was seized in his trailer. He was convicted in 1998.

The father of a Ryce said he will attend the execution of his son's killer.

"There is sense of relief, there is sense that the world is not quite right so long as that man still lives and so many of my family are dead," Ryce said.

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