It was the first order for an execution that Gov. Rick Scott has signed since occupying the governor’s office in January, and he told reporters in a short availability after a speech in St. Petersburg that he looked at several death row inmates.
“This was the most appropriate case,” he said of Valle. “He killed a law enforcement officer, he attempted to kill another law enforcement officer… It’s a hard decision but it’s the right thing to do.”
Valle was initially sentenced to death in 1981 for the 1978 murder of Coral Gables Police Department Officer Luis Pena. He was re-sentenced in 1988 after a round of appeals.
The execution has been scheduled for Aug. 2 at 6 p.m..
