Death Row Inmate Executed After Last Minute Appeal Rejected

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STARKE (CBSMiami/NSF) - After a last-ditch appeal delayed the execution for about four hours, convicted murderer Oscar Ray Bolin Jr. was put to death by lethal injection late Thursday at Florida State Prison near Starke.

Bolin's sentence was carried out at 10:16 p.m., according to the Florida Department of Corrections. That came after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a final appeal.

The execution was the first of 2016 and the 23rd under Gov. Rick Scott, the most of any Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

Bolin, 53, was executed for the December 1986 murder of Terri Lynn Matthews, whose body was discovered by the side of a road outside a post office in rural Pasco County.

Bolin, a former long-haul trucker who professed his innocence, also was found guilty by separate juries in the 1986 murders of Stephanie Collins, 17, and Natalie Holley, 25. Bolin was in an Ohio prison when his ex-wife alerted authorities to his connection to Matthews' death.

Michael Ray Lambrix, who has spent 31 years on Death Row, is the next inmate scheduled to be executed. Scott has signed the warrant for Lambrix' execution to take place February 11th.

The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.