Florida Executes Ex-Sweetwater Police Officer

Former South Florida police officer Manuel Pardo, convicted of killing nine drug dealers and informers to eliminate his own competition, was executed Tuesday night at Florida State Prison in Starke.

Last-minute appeals -- claiming mental illness -- by Pardos attorneys were rejected prior to the 7:47 p.m. lethal injection death sentence being carried out.

Gov. Rick Scott signed the death warrant on Oct. 31 for Pardo, 56, who had been an officer with the South Florida town of Sweetwater.

The state argued that Pardo and a co-defendant were dealing drugs and the execution-style murders in 1986 were simply a means to eliminate the competition.

According to the Associated Press, Pardo wrote a final statement in which he denied having killed any women but accepted full responsibility for killing six men.