Rolling a Day Away From Death

Convicted killer Danny Rolling is reported to be calm less than 24 hours from his execution for the 1990 murders of five college students.

Rolling is scheduled to die tomorrow night at 6, at the Florida State Prison in Starke.

"I don’t want to die, but it looks like I’m going to die," Rolling said to his attorney.

Rolling has a last appeal pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. He contends the chemicals used in Florida’s execution process cause severe pain.

He apparently spared his victims no pain. Some of the students he is accused of killing were mutilated, posed and sexually assaulted. He was linked to the serial killings after a supermarket robbery. Detectives used D-N-A to charge him in the murders months later.

In the next 24 hours, the prison will serve Rolling the final meal he requests.

Procedure calls for a visit from the warden and chaplain, who remain on site until after the execution. Five witnesses will attend the execution, among them Sarasota anchorwoman Linda Carson, the mother of CBS47 and FOX30 reporter Cathi Carson. Rolling has written letters to Mrs. Carson and she has covered his appeals cases for many years.

In Gainesville, U.F. students remember Rolling’s victims. A memorial to all five of those he killed still stands.