The Supreme Court of Florida is allowing the execution of an inmate who has been sentenced to death to proceed. 

The court, according to CBS News, rejected - unanimously - an appeal from the inmate, Loran Cole.

This, however, is likely not the end of the legal battle.

Read on to understand why.

Cole's appeal

Cole has been on Death Row for some time, after he, in 1994, was convicted of murdering a Florida State University student. He and his attorneys have been trying to avoid the execution of his death sentence. To this end, they have filed an appeal raising a number of arguments.

CBS reports:

Cole's attorneys contended the abuse at the now-shuttered reform school [Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna] contributed to his behavior. They also pointed to a recently passed law that set up a compensation program for people who were abused at the Jackson County school and the Okeechobee School in South Florida, saying the law constituted "newly discovered evidence" that warranted a fresh look at Cole's death sentence.

For years, Cole and his attorneys have argued that his death penalty sentence ought to be thrown out because he allegedly was abused at Dozier and because it was this abuse that, at least partially, caused him to murder the college student.

The courts have repeatedly rejected this argument.

But, what Cole and his lawyers most recently argued is that this new law - the one that sets up a compensation program for abused individuals - requires a review of Cole's death sentence because it essentially is an admission of guilt on the part of the state. It is the state admitting that it contributed to Cole's bad behavior.

Denied

The judges of Florida's top court, however, are not buying this new argument.

The Tampa Free Press reports, "[T]he court rejected these arguments, stating that the law doesn't constitute new evidence and Cole's claims about Dozier were raised too late."

The outlet adds, "The court also dismissed concerns about Cole's Parkinson's disease causing complications during lethal injection, stating that his claims were meritless and filed too late."

As things currently stand, Cole's execution is expected to be carried out on Thursday, Aug. 29. 2024. It is expected, however, that Cole and his legal team will attempt to bring forth a last-minute federal court appeal to stop the execution.

It is unclear, at the time of this writing, whether this appeal would achieve its goal.