Pam Bondi, attorney general of the US state of Florida, admitted Tuesday she had postponed an execution so that she could attend a fundraiser to kick off her electoral campaign.
Death-row convict Marshall Gore, due to be put to death for a double murder in the 1980s, had been scheduled to be executed on Tuesday night, but the date was shifted to October 1.
Bondi, a leading Republican, acknowledged making a mistake by asking for the execution to be delayed again.
“The planned execution of Marshall Lee Gore had already been stayed twice by the courts, and we should not have requested that the date of the execution be moved,” she said in a statement.
Bondi, who asked Governor Rick Scott to change the date, added: “As a prosecutor, there was nothing more important than seeing justice done, especially when it came to the unconscionable act of murder.”
Political website Politico first reported that Bondi asked Scott to move the execution date so that she could attend a hometown fundraiser in Tampa.
US execution date moved due to campaign fundraiser
