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The Miami Herald via AP file
Manuel Pardo listens as his sentence is read in 1988.
Updated at 8:15 p.m. ET : STARKE, Fla. -- A former police officer who murdered nine people during a 1986 crime spree was executed Tuesday after his attorneys' last-minute appeals were rejected.
Manuel Pardo, 56, was pronounced dead at Florida State Prison at 7:47 p.m., about 16 minutes after the lethal injection process began. His attorneys had tried to block the execution by arguing that he was mentally ill, but federal courts declined to intercede.
Reporters could not hear his final statement because of an apparent malfunction in the death chamber's sound system. A white sheet had been pulled up to his chin and IV lines ran into his left arm. He blinked several times, his eyes moved back and forth and he took several deep breaths. Over the next several minutes the color drained from his face before he was pronounced dead.
Pardo spent Tuesday afternoon with eight family and friends and ordered a Cuban-style meal of roasted pork chunks, white rice and red beans, fried plantains with tomato and avocado, topped with olive oil, the Miami Herald reported. For dessert, he had pumpkin pie and Cuban coffee.
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Officials said most of Pardo's victims were involved with drugs. Pardo contended that he was doing the world a favor by killing them over three-month period in early 1986.
"I am a soldier, I accomplished my mission and I humbly ask you to give me the glory of ending my life and not send me to spend the rest of my days in state prison," Pardo told jurors at his 1988 trial.
Ann Howard, a spokeswoman for Florida's Department of Corrections, said that Pardo visited with eight people Tuesday. He also met with the prison chaplain and a Roman Catholic bishop.
Pardo ate a last meal of rice, red beans, roasted pork, plantains, avocado, tomatoes and olive oil. For dessert, he ate pumpkin pie and drank egg nog and Cuban Coffee. Under Department of Corrections rules, the meal's ingredients have to cost $40 or less, be available locally and made in the prison kitchen.
Pardo was dubbed the "Death Row Romeo" after he corresponded with dozens of women and persuaded many to send him money.
Pardo, a former Boy Scout and Navy veteran, began his law enforcement career in the 1970s with the Florida Highway Patrol, graduating at the top of his class at the academy. But he was fired from that agency in 1979 for falsifying traffic tickets. He was soon hired by the police department in Sweetwater, a small city in Miami-Dade County.
Cops gone bad: 'Death Row Romeo' on notorious list
In 1981, Pardo was one of four Sweetwater officers charged with brutality, but the cases were dismissed.
He was fired four years later after he flew to the Bahamas to testify at the trial of a Sweetwater colleague who was accused of drug smuggling. Pardo lied, telling the court they were international undercover agents.
Then over a 92-day period in early 1986, Pardo committed a series of robberies, killing six men and three women. He took photos of the victims and recounted some details in his diary, which was found along with newspaper clippings about the murders. Pardo was linked to the killings after using credit cards stolen from the victims.
Regino Musa, the brother of one of Pardo's victims, said it's difficult to grasp that the execution will finally happen. He and his elderly mother planned to attend.
"It's about time. It's been so long, you just want to get it over with," said Musa, whose sister, Sara Musa, was killed by Pardo. "I still have nightmares and I don't have words to describe it. I can't believe that it's happening."
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
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Leave a Comment:
Run of the mill nut case
Here is a guy convicted in 1988 - 25 years ago almost -who WANTS the death penalty who can't get killed. Seriously? Really? If he wanted to die whats he doing appealing to federal judges for stay of execution? They need to stop allowing 'friends of the court' to meddle in these things.
Its like the guy in Connecticut who admitted to killing people, had no mental illness, liked doing it, and asked to be put to death and panty waists could not do it for 20 years. . . .
Women sent him money? IDIOTS! I can't imagine what any inmate would have to say in order to get me to send them money.
I love the fact that all these convicts want to not recieve the death penalty. That's proof that the death penalty works as a punishment. Frankly, I don't care HOW much it costs, we have a civic duty to carry out justice no matter the price. Also, I especially love the fact that they all try to claim they are insane to avoid it. The fact of the matter is that you have to be crazy to murder someone, therefore it's not an excuse to use so that you can try to avoid punishment.
Macho Man Cop, how many more are out there playing judge and jury in the field? Tons.
The guy says he wants to be put down...so its a win win newswinner. I think we should save the money it costs to manufacture the chambers this biz is done in down here and just drop them off in a swamp full of 12 ft extremely hungry and pissed off gators.
Yeah troy, I meant in general. The inmates always complain and repeal their sentence. Like the fat guy who tryed to complain he was too fat to be executed. He should be given 2 piece of celery and a glass of water every day until he's thin enough to execute. Put these scumbags down.
I don't know what mill you've been running, but I hope it's far away from me
I'm not sure what's worse, this self-righteous scumbag and his hypocritical actions or his attorneys who won't let him die. Who cares whether he's mentally ill or not?
Shame he isn't going to fry, but at least he is bye bye.
Why are these serial killers always so popular with women? Maybe it's true women are attracted to violent men and many are to blame for staying in abusive relationships. Foolish, foolish women.
Hey Newswinner - actually you do not have to be 'crazy' to murder someone . . . just really really pissed. If you are one of those folks who has very little control over their emotions then its likely you can become overwhelmed by adrenalin and do just about anything . . .
The scary ones are the ones who plan . . .
I'm more worry about the A$$HOLE that shoots me for the 5 dollars in my pocket.
Once you get on a crusade to kill pimps, or prostitutes, or drug pushers, or communists, or whoever the f you don't like, you've passed a mind threshold into the world of insanity.
When anyone looks at you straight in the eye and tells you to get a life do yourself a favor and calm down, find a place to sit down and think about it. They might have a point.
FRY BABY FRY, We really need to quit the Farce..... If we are going to do Capital Punishment then it needs to be carried out in a Timely Manner, Guilty take out back and shot them after 1 appeal..... If it is found that a Public Prosecutor with held evidence then that Prosecutor also needs to be FRY-ED.....
Dozens of desperate, unbalanced women are saddened by today's news.
Man says he doesn't want to rot in prison, but die by execution. Man rots in prison for over 20yrs and then dies by execution. lol.
That piece of trash should have been hanged 25 years ago. It is a disgrace that it takes decades for these bastards to be executed.
I'm amazed that this POS is still breathing, they should have flicked the switch on his ass years ago.
It only took 24 years to kill the bastard. Makes a person want the old way of execution. Guilty today and hung at sunrise the next day!
If they had waited much longer he would have died of old age :)
I hope the Florida taxpayers enjoyed giving this guy a good life for 25 yrs along with his pubic defenders.
It took 25 years to deliver justice. What a judicial system. Shameful and a disgrace.
"Pardo ate a last meal of rice, red beans, roasted pork, plantains, avocado, tomatoes and olive oil. For dessert, he ate pumpkin pie and drank egg nog and Cuban Coffee. Under Department of Corrections rules, the meal's ingredients have to cost $40 or less." Not bad for $40. Anyone know where I can get the same meal for $40 outside of prison? I would also like to know how much taxpayers spent to keep him healthy and well fed since 1986.
The leathal injection is too humane. Leathal injection is for female prisoners. The men deserves something more manly and with style like bringing back the guillotine, Public Hanging and the best one......firing squad.
Lethal injection for women versus men? You might want ot review how ruthless the women were to get the death penalty. They already get treated with kid gloves regarding treatment in trials and charges but to extend that to methods of execution just because they have a diffeerent plumbing system?
Good riddance! He was a crooked cop that would ruin your life in a heartbeat.
Maybe he took out some bad guys', and maybe he didn't, but the point is he
would arrest people and lie about them in court under oath, just to get a conviction.
That makes him evil and a threat to everybody.
Why was he allowed to live all those years???? Why have the dealth penalty if you're gonna wait over 20 years before it is implemented. It's not like there was any doubt that he didn't kill those people. Crazy....
I think we should have a limit on how long the appeals process can continue. I think five years is ample; less if the guilt is admitted and execution requested. Five years is plenty of time.
For those in opposition to the death penalty, if this person were ever to leave any restrictive atmosphere, he would (happily) kill again. This includes his "keepers." They are in danger every moment they are within arm's reach. Once he is dead, he will never kill again. It is something to be considered.
Exceptions will always occur, but I think it would be a rare occasion. We put down killer dogs in humane ways, there is no reason we can't put down killer humans using similar methods.
Can't say there weren't warnings.
Sad thing that a man so apparently intelligent was lacking greatly in the compassion and morals departments.
Most murderers are intelligent for the most part. Many notorious serial killers are usually white, college educated with high IQ's and a decent job, etc. This cop may have thought he was actually doing the public a favor by killing drug dealers, etc., like a vigilante type thing, however, that only works in the movies, not in real life. I don't condone the death penalty, however, he should rot in prison.
Karen. pretty sure using their credit cards, which is illegal, pretty much nullifies his ridiculous claim of doing the world a favor. He did it for personal gain. And the media loves to portray these clowns as highly intelligent, but look deeper, most aren't. Using a dead person's credit card or driving around in their vehicle is really stupid, so is keep a journal about it, lying in open court, and falsifying tickets.
I would imagine truly intelligent serial killers are not in prison, smart enough to ensure their victims are never found, which means no one is looking for them.
Scott.. These clowns are manipulators that want to portray themselves as intelligent.. They just manipulate people in to believing the crap they are selling..
Emmmhmm I agree with you there.. Sad and Sick, but agree with you..
Kept getting caught and kept getting hired again somewhere else! Does anyone check references anymore?
Just what would disqualify you from getting a job as a cop in Florida?
We do now! This was over 2 decades ago.
Seems like nothing would disqualify you from being a cop in Florida. But then, it IS Florida.
Hmmm...let me think...objectivity is frowned on so that would probably get you canned down here.
They're all crooked criminals, so not much to choose from.
ill second that
Bobmck-Yeah, I am aware of an individual who got one policeman job after another despite being previously fired for conduct unbecoming.......scary indeed. I remember having a conversation that individual and he was a BS artist with few peers.
bob Ohio..wana know how too be disqualified,an get a thorough reference chech..Be a BLACK MALE..
kyzer1
Why am I not surprised to encounter yet another bigot who can't spell or put together a coherent sentence? Next time you get the urge to publish an ignorant, racist comment count to ten (if you can).
I'm thinking kyzer1 is actually black and not being a racist at all don.
Kyzer1,
black cops in my town, I trust and are most always polite as has been my experience when I have been engaged by them for whatever the hell I did wrong at the time..lol. Its the rural trolling swamp country boys that give me the bad feeling in my gut when I get pulled over...a bit of a crap shoot, sometimes good sometimes bad. And I especially hate any cop that is drunk on his own power....all the rest are cool by me. Most are decent and do a good job at keeping the peace...necessary. I suppose I'd rather have them than not. I havent been pulled over much in my life but thinking about the collective experiences I stand by what I said...down here, rural cops bad...
like his reasoning even if it was mis-guided....
The jury and most people would call this guy not misguided as you refer to him but a liar and a psychotic killer. He is not above the law although he was supposed to uphold the law. Good riddance to him...he's already cost the Florida taxpayers a hefty sum.
Florida. Again.
Larry
Pick your state Larry - Foxtrot Yankee
Larry. Again.
Of course, you don't mention where you live but it must be a great place since there is no crime. Maybe all of the criminals in your state have gone to Florida. Can we send them back to you???
Larry is probably from Florida too chefaz....if not please do tell us where so we can ship some of these sick wackos on up to ya and see if you dont want them dead
Screw all the talk! We got more prisoner killin' to get done down here so the sooner you can get this one off the table the sooner we can get the next one on!
Free up our tax dollars and kill the loser.....for the victims of course....justice for the body and God can serve justice for his soul....creep.
I love Stark!
Jack, how the hell are ya? We gonna put another dog down tonight or what? lol
Roger that Troy, the POS shoulda been put down 25 years ago!
Hey Troy. Hey jack.
Agreed.
i wonder why they need the long drawn out trial for Nidal.
Yeah....We need to optimize the process....I'm for the slime bags getting one appeal and then off to the table for an eternal nap.
You are aware that this policy would have meant that a significant number of people who have been PROVEN INNOCENT would have been executed, aren't you? There's many cases where an exoneration came after a number of appeals had failed?
his thinking. it's off.
FLORIDA: (noun) The last remaining true Wild West. Forget Alaska. Just bad weather and people who live very indepndently. Forget Texas. A big dessert with cities inbetween and oil revenue. Stuff happens everywhere but when it happens in Florida, it's just adds to the state's not so shining track record. They got Disneyland, South Beach, nice weather. English is the third language in Miami. The cops put up the white flag a long time ago. Jebb bush was govenor. The 2004 presidential ballot fiasco. Zimmerman. What else. I say tell Raul Castor if he doesn't shape up his act, we'll saw it off from and push it towards Cuba. Think of all the jobs that would create.
We'd like to improve our track record. Keep your criminals in your own states. We don't want them.
Two notorious cases in point - Ted Bundy and Aileen Wuornos. It was Florida that finally arrested them and made sure that they could never harm anyone ever again.
I guess you live in the land of milk and honey.
Bill, you forgot another Floridian characteristic;
Most of us are more or less well armed and ready to drop anybody at the state line who has a saw in their hands.
Well said Chefaz. Actually, most of the wack jobs end up migrating down here from Wisconsin and the midwest in general.....Seriously, Wisconsin produces serial killers at a somewhat consistent rate. You guys need to quit using lead pipes up there.
Not Disneyland, Disney World.
Bill 4012182
I do believe your name is AKA for Richard Cranium from lala land
I wouldn't care to watch a video of the execution but wouldn't mind watching them hook him up to the drip.
The real sad part about this story is that it's not an isolated event. This crap happens everyday! The difference is is that the cops normally get paid leave and later find that they did nothing wrong. They have a license to kill anybody they choose to at any given moment! This story is in the minority not majority. I wish they would have just sent him to prison with all of the other "bad guys" so he could get his just due. In general population where some people that he and his buddies had a hand in putting them their and let the chips fall where they may. Think of how many wrongly convicted people that were sent to prison on this criminals word alone! And BTW if this person was crazy as the lawyers claim WHY IN THE HELL WAS HE GIVEN A BADGE AND A GUN!!! And for those of you who say he was cleaning up the streets and helping society THIS MAN WAS THE CRIMINAL how could you take his word for who was a criminal. He is a serial killer trying to say he was cleaning up the streets of drug dealers!! Seems to me murder is alot worse than dealing drugs especially now that 2 states in this union have legalized one of those said drugs. I would venture to say that he was eliminating his competition if they were indeed dealing drugs!!
Police work is very attractive to "authority figure" personalities, whose motive is to dominate and control rather than to serve and protect. We have much better academy screening now, but any police officer who is fired for abuse of official power should be started into counseling rather than summarily fired. This guy totally flipped out after being fired from Sweetwater PD.
From his looks, killing him can't be much worse than the food he got in prison for the past 25 years. He looks rank. So long and have a good after life in Hades, maybe you will hookup with some of your victims.
Yet another great example of how great our court system and lawyers work... work at taking our money and wasting it... Hang the bastard and be done with it... Most of the damned appeals are done only because greedy lawyers know how to milk the system again and again...
Toxic Cops has been contacted by MSNBC for an opinion. This guy gave good law enforcement a black eye and he should die for his crimes.
Goodbye and good riddance. Cops are meant to protect us, not kill us. The scariest part of this is how this guy WAS a policeman. Luckily, we can put the emphases on was there. Hopefully, we can do the same with "living."
i'm not in favour of the death penalty at all - not for moral reasons but because if someone is later found innocent and they've been executed it's impossible to "un-kill" them.
but if anyone deserves it, Romeo is one of em.
one of our nation's biggest homegrown slimebags. and it's not FLA fault... we even get them here in the north (Berkowitz grew up in the same neighborhood as one of my perents)
I look at this guy and see David Soul's chracter in Magnum Force. Soon he will be a, "dead" ringer. Having said that I am anti death penalty. Lock him up and throw away the key.
He saved taxpayers money by killing the 9 scum bags, the only thing he did wrong was rob them. Im a firm believer if you sell drugs you die, if you use drugs you are an idiot.
Didom...
What is your response now that the American states are now legalizing marijuana?? You think that's OK? I know quite a few dealers who DID NOT die, and far more users still breathing. You are in the minority, my friend.
may his carcass rot in hell...
Mentally ill in deed.