XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: rhk@pfeiser.com   
      
   Juan Carlos Chavez, the man convicted of kidnapping, raping and   
   murdering 9-year-old Jimmy Ryce in South Florida was executed by   
   injection Wednesday at 8:17 p.m, after a last minute stay of   
   execution was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court.   
      
   In 1995 Jimmy Ryce’s  case shook South Florida when the boy   
   disappeared after being  dropped off by his school bus in South   
   Miami-Dade. Hundreds of police officers and volunteers handling   
   thousands of leads, took to the streets and wooded areas of   
   South Florida trying to find Jimmy.   
      
   It wasn’t until ranch owner Susan Scheinhaus entered her ranch   
   hand’s trailer, on suspicion that he was stealing from her, that   
   police got their break in the case three months later. That   
   ranch hand was Juan Carlos Chavez, and inside police say   
   Scheinhaus found a gun that belonged to her and Jimmy’s backpack   
   filled with his homework and books.   
      
   Throughout the course of the investigation, and the trial,   
   Chavez had various explanations for the discovery, sometimes   
   giving conflicting reports. During the trial Chavez dropped a   
   bombshell on the prosecution, stating he wanted to recant his   
   confession–trying to place the blame on the ranch owner’s   
   brother, but police eventually got their conviction.   
      
   Juan Carlos Chavez Dies   
      
   In front of several news reporters and other witnesses at the   
   Starke prison facility, near Gainesville in Florida, guards   
   administered a lethal cocktail of drugs via an intravenous line   
   while Chavez was lying down strapped to a gurney.   
      
   Chavez’s demeanor was described as calm after having his last   
   meal on Wednesday morning, but he gave no other statements.   
   Chavez migrated to the United States on a raft from Cuba in   
   1995, and his mother was last reported living in Orlando,   
   Florida, but neither her nor any other family members were seen   
   at the prison Wednesday.   
      
   The Florida Supreme court struck down a stay of execution at the   
   last minute, but Chavez’s attorneys appealed to the U.S.   
      
   Supreme Court to stop his death. For this reason his scheduled   
   execution time of 6 p.m. was delayed for for more than two hours.   
      
   A small group of protesters who oppose the death penalty also   
   stood outside the Florida State Prison, urging that the   
   execution not happen.   
      
   Jimmy Ryce’s Murder   
      
   When the school bus picked up Don and Claudine’s Ryce son in the   
   Redland, a rural area south of the City of Miami, they never   
   imagined that was the last day they’d see their lively son, who   
   loved playing baseball and sported a big smile in all his photos.   
      
   “Chavez admitted to forcing Jimmy into his truck at gunpoint   
   just after the boy got off his school bus. He took the terrified   
   boy to a remote trailer where he raped the child. When Jimmy   
   heard helicopters overhead Chavez shot him to death as Jimmy   
   tried to run from the mobile home trailer,” as reported by CBS4.   
      
   The boy never made it to school that day.   
      
   What happened next is too much for any parent to bear. Chavez   
   told police he took the body to the ranch, dismembered his body   
   and put the pieces in planters that he later filled with   
   concrete. Police found the evidence exactly where Chavez had   
   pointed them to. Chavez was convicted of sexual batter,   
   kidnapping and murder.   
      
   In 1998 Judge Marc Schumacher sentenced Chavez to death. As is   
   usual with inmates on death row, a drawn-out and costly appeals   
   process ensued in the court system.   
      
   Don Ryce Finds Closure After Son’s Death   
      
   Don Ryce did not talk to the press directly upon finding out   
   about Chavez’s death sentence, but  he did issue a public   
   statement on January 2, 2014:   
      
   “I just received the news that justice will finally be done in   
   the murder of my son, Jimmy, on September 11, 1995. I feel a   
   combination of sadness and relief. I hope this sends a message   
   to predators that this behavior will not go unpunished,” Don   
   Ryce wrote.   
      
   Ryce suffered yet more tragedy after his son’s death. His wife   
   Claudine died in 2009 of coronary heart disease, and CBS4   
   reported Jimmy’s sister committed suicide in 2013 at the age of   
   35.   
      
   Jimmy Ryce’s family started the Jimmy Ryce Foundation as a way   
   to effect positive change in society by preventing tragedies   
   such as this one. Their advocacy helped bring about changes in   
   the way missing children. Among their contributions have been   
   bloodhound dogs donated to police agencies around the country   
   especially trained to look for missing persons.   
      
   http://voxxi.com/2014/02/12/juan-carlos-chavez-execution-florida/   
      
       
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)