Oscar Ray Bolin executed Thursday after Supreme Court denies stay

STARKE (FOX 13) - Nearly 30 years after three Bay Area women were murdered, their killer's lengthy list of legal appeals ran out.  The state of Florida executed Oscar Ray Bolin on Thursday after the Supreme Court rejected his last-minute plea.

The lethal injection was delivered at 10:16 p.m. Thursday as relatives of his victims looked on, finally getting some measure of justice.

For the families of Stephanie Collins, Natalie Holley and Teri Lynn Matthews, it all started in 1986 -- the year the three women were murdered. Over the decades, the mothers of all three women have endured trials and re-trials.

Bolin outlived Natalie Holley’s mother, who died in 2012 still waiting for justice.  But the mothers of Collins and Matthews planned to witness his death.

Some other friends and family of the women planned to travel to Starke for the execution, but others said the closure would only go so far.

"He has had a life, no matter how limited that life was," said Erika Gomez, Collins' best friend. "My girlfriend's life was ended; she didn't have the opportunity to marry like he did."

In his final interview from death row, Bolin continued to profess his innocence.  He picked apart the evidence against him, placing the blame on everyone from his ex-wife, to detectives, to a discredited FBI agent -- everyone except himself.

“They’re executing someone that absolutely did not commit that murder,” Bolin told FOX 13's Gloria Gomez, regarding the death of Teri Lynn Matthews, the case for which he was officially executed.

He said the same the thing about Collins and Holley’s murders, but a total of 10 different juries said he did kill the women.

Either way, Bolin appeared to be prepared to face what was coming.

"[The state] killed me 28 years ago when they locked me up," he said.  "Now they’re just releasing me."