Paul Augustus Howell execution: Convicted killer of FHP Trooper Jimmy Fulford appeals execution

Associated Press

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A drug trafficker convicted of killing a state trooper is asking the Florida Supreme Court to block his scheduled Feb. 26 execution.

Lawyers for Paul Augustus Howell asked the justices for a stay of execution and filed a post-conviction appeal on Wednesday.

Circuit Judge Angela Dempsey previously denied Howell's appeal in Jefferson County. That's where Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Jimmy Fulford was killed by an exploding pipe bomb in February 1992.

The bomb was in a gift-wrapped microwave oven Fulford found in a car he stopped for a traffic violation on Interstate 10 east of Tallahassee.

Howell was convicted of building the bomb that he intended to kill two women in Marianna because they knew too much about a South Florida drug trafficking ring.