"Let them come down here and do it," Branch told the Florida State Prison officers on Thursday evening (Friday NZ Time), according to the Associated Press. Police said Morris then took the vehicle and drove it out of state, according to the AP. In response to one of Branch's appeals, a Florida Supreme Court justice wrote that Morris "had been beaten, stomped, sexually assaulted and strangled. One of Branch's final and unsuccessful appeals to the US Supreme Court involved whether he deserved a new sentencing hearing because of that jury's 10-2 vote in his 1994 trial. The Florida Supreme Court has ruled that the new system of sentencing did not apply to inmates sentenced to death before 2002.

Source: Stuff February 23, 2018 18:45 UTC