Man executed for pipe bomb death

A drug trafficker who placed a pipe bomb in a gift-wrapped microwave oven in a plot to kill two potential murder witnesses was executed Wednesday for the 1992 death of a Florida highway trooper who became the unintended victim. It was the fifth execution using a new, medically untested cocktail of three drugs.

Paul Augustus Howell, 48, was pronounced dead at 6:32 p.m. following a lethal injection at the Florida State Prison in Stark, the office of Gov. Rick Scott said in an email to the Associated Press.

Howell, a native of Jamaica, was condemned for the killing of Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Jimmy Fulford on Feb. 1, 1992, when the bomb exploded during a traffic stop.

Howell built the bomb in his Fort Lauderdale home and placed it in the microwave oven, court documents stated. He then paid another man, Lester Watson, $200 to deliver the box across-state to a woman who, along with a friend, could tie Howell to a drug-related murder, according to the records.

When Florida trooper Fulford stopped Watson for speeding and opened the package to see what was in the microwave oven, a powerful explosion took his life. The blast, so strong that it left a depression in the roadway, occurred just east of Tallahassee.

Fulford's death prompted a state and federal investigation that broke apart a drug ring and led to the indictment of 28 people.

Howell was sentenced to life on federal drug charges. He was then convicted on state charges of murder and making, possessing, placing and discharging a destructive device and given the death sentence.

His lawyers had filed an unsuccessful appeal Tuesday to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that a drug Florida now uses for executions has never been tested for that purpose. This was the fifth execution in the state using a new drug, midazolam hydrochloride, as part of a three-drug mix.

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press