TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Trying to convince the Florida Supreme Court to halt a scheduled March 20 execution, an attorney for inmate Edward James is arguing that drug and alcohol use since childhood, multiple head injuries and a near-fatal heart attack have helped lead to James suffering “cognitive decline.”

Attorney Dawn Macready, in a 66-page brief filed Wednesday, contended that executing James would violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. That contention focuses heavily on his cognitive decline.

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Feb. 18 issued a death warrant for James, who was convicted in the 1993 murders of a Seminole County woman and her 8-year-old granddaughter. Macready appealed to the Supreme Court after a Seminole County circuit judge last month refused to block the execution.

Wednesday’s brief outlined a troubled life that included James’ father introducing him to drugs and alcohol as a child. In addition to alcohol, the brief said James as a child used drugs such as marijuana, PCP, cocaine, speed and LSD.

It pointed to heavy drug and alcohol use as an adult, saying that around the time of the murders, “James was heavily using methamphetamines, depressants, cocaine, marijuana and alcohol. It is unlikely that James’ brain was ever not under the influence of substances, or had any significant respite from drug and alcohol exposure.”

The brief said James also suffered numerous head injuries in incidents such as car crashes and fights, with the injuries meeting “clinical criteria for traumatic brain injury.”

“Throughout the years, he has been involved in many fights and suffered multiple injuries to the head (including being hit on the head with a baseball bat and a two-by-four), many of which caused a loss of consciousness,” the brief said. “During his time in the Army, he was also involved in many bar fights on weekends.”

In addition, the brief said James suffered a heart attack in 2023 at Union Correctional Institution that deprived his brain of oxygen. It said results of a CT scan after the heart attack should be treated as “newly discovered evidence” to bolster arguments about halting the execution.

James was convicted of murdering Betty Dick and her granddaughter Toni Neuner. He rented a room from Dick and committed the murders after a night of drinking and drug use.

Court documents said James came to the Seminole County home and strangled the child and sexually assaulted her. He then went to Dick’s bedroom, where he intended to have sex with her. He stabbed her to death, the documents said.

James, now 63, was sentenced to death in 1995 in the murders and also received prison sentences on other charges.

After DeSantis signed the death warrant, Macready argued in Seminole County circuit court that the execution should be halted because of James’ cognitive decline.

But Circuit Judge Melanie Chase rejected the arguments on a series of grounds, including saying that James’ cognitive issues had been known long before the heart attack. She wrote that a legal claim about the issue was “untimely.”

“Defendant, himself, alleges in his motion that he has suffered from a cognitive decline and dementing process ‘for years,’ and he summarized the findings of experts regarding that decline from evaluations performed as early as 2018,” the ruling said. “He does not allege, however, why he waited to raise this claim until after the death warrant was signed.”

Chase also wrote that the claim lacks “merit.”

“Based upon all of this evidence, it is clear that defendant’s cognitive decline and mental deterioration has existed for many years,” the judge wrote. “It appears, however, that no attempts were made to obtain the additional imaging recommended by the experts, or to seek postconviction relief based on this cognitive decline until now. To the extent defendant argues that his cognitive decline and brain damage were only recently significantly exacerbated due to his 2023 heart attack, the court still finds that (the claim) lacks merit.”