TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - A South Florida drug trafficker convicted of killing a state trooper with a pipe bomb is once again scheduled to die.
Gov. Rick Scott sent a letter to the warden of Florida State Prison on Friday, setting Paul Augustus Howell's new execution date for Feb. 26.
Scott signed a death warrant for Howell last January, but the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. District of Appeal temporarily blocked the execution. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi certified on Wednesday that the stay had been lifted.
Howell was convicted of killing Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Jimmy Fulford in 1992 with a bomb placed inside a gift-wrapped microwave oven.
Authorities said it was intended to kill two Marianna women, but Fulford stopped a car carrying the package for speeding near Tallahassee.
