TALLAHASSEE, Florida — A Florida man convicted of murdering a college freshman and raping the student’s sister while the siblings were camping in a national forest 30 years ago will be executed Thursday.
Unless the US Supreme Court intervenes, Loran Cole will be put to death at approximately 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison for the 1994 murder. Cole is also serving two life sentences for rape.
According to court records, Cole and a friend, William Paul, befriended the two students in the Ocala National Forest. After chatting around a fire, the men offered to take the siblings to a pond. When they were not at the campsite, Cole and Paul pounced on the victims and robbed them.
The brother, 18, a student at Florida State University, was beaten, had his throat cut and was left in the woods. His sister, 21 and a senior at Eckerd College, was taken back to the campsite, where Cole tied her up and raped her.
The woman was tied to a tree all night and raped again the next day. She eventually freed herself and flagged down a driver for help. According to court records, police found her brother’s body lying face down on the ground.
Governor Ron DeSantis signed Cole’s death warrant last month.
Attorneys for Cole, 57, raised several points in their appeal, including that Cole was an inmate at a state-run reform school where he and other boys were beaten and raped. The state has since apologized for the abuse and this year passed a law authorizing reparations for inmates at the now-shuttered facility reform school.
Cole’s lawyers also argued that he should not be executed because he has brain damage, is mentally ill and has Parkinson’s disease.
The Supreme Court rejected the defense’s arguments.
Paul and Cole were convicted of first-degree murder. Paul was sentenced to life in prison.
The execution will be the first in Florida since Michael Zack was put to death last October for the 1996 murder of Ravonne Smith.