Ex-Cop 'Vigilante" Murderer To Be Executed Tonight

Claimed Killings Rid Community Of "Vermin"

Manuel Pardo, Jr. will be executed tonight at 6 p.m. at the Florida State Prison in Starke, Florida. 

Pardo, in prison since June 1988 was convicted on nine counts of January 1986 first-degree murders in Miami.

His attorneys told a Federal court Monday that the drug combinations being used tonight for lethal injections would violate his civil rights if the drugs were improperly mixed and the anesthetic effect didn't work.

Federal Judge Timothy Corrigan denied the motion.

Pardo served in the Navy from 1974 to 1978, and then joined the Marine Reserves and worked for the Florida Highway Patrol and then the Sweetwater Police Department, a small town west of Miami.

He was fired from the department in 1985 after lying in court.

At his trial for the murder of individuals involved in drugs he claimed "I'm ridding the community of this vermin and technically it is not murder because they're not human beings."

Pardo's attorneys had filed an appeal to the Florida Supreme Court claiming Pardo was incompetent to stand trial in 1988.

Life In A Death Watch Cell

He has been housed in a Death Watch cell measuring 12 x 7 x 8.5 feet high, and has been allowed a shower every other day. 

Pardo is given a spork with his meals and eats from a tray. He may request a last meal. To avoid extravagance, the food to prepare the last meal must cost no more than $40 and must be purchased locally.

Death Row inmates can be distinguished from other inmates by their orange t-shirts. Death Row inmates may have snacks, radios and 13" televisions in their cells. Beginning October 1, 2011, inmates were prohibited from smoking cigarettes and using any form of tobacco in prison, including on death row.

They do not have cable television or air-conditioning and they are not allowed to be with each other in a common room. They can watch church services on closed circuit television. While on Death Watch, inmates may have radios and televisions positioned outside their cell bars.

Pardo is one of 406 individuals on Death Row in Florida. The list of individuals awaiting either lethal injection or the electric chair includes 241 white males, 147 black males, 1 white female, and 2 black females.

Photo: Gurney in the execution chamber where Pardo will receive lethal injections

The electric chair will be unbolted from the floor in the execution chamber and moved outside when the chamber is used for lethal injection. The electrical apparatus used with the electric chair will remain unchanged.

When death by injection option was allowed by the state, the Department of Corrections spent $42,142 to prepare the death chamber. The gurney cost $2,400 plus $1,135 in accessories, and three electronic heart monitors cost $26,166.

The doorway leading into the execution chamber was modified to accommodate a gurney and an area near the death chamber was converted into a lethal injection preparation room.

He will be put to death by an executioner, a private citizen paid $150 who is allowed to keep his or her identity anonymous.

Update: Pardo was pronounced dead at Florida State Prison at 7:47 p.m. Tuesday night, about 16 minutes after the lethal injection process began. A malfunction in the sound system prevented reporters from hearing his final statement but his last words were "Airborne forever. I love you, Michi baby," referring to his daughter.

In a final written statement he took responsibility for killing six men but denied killing three woman.