TAMPA, Fla. — A Hillsborough circuit judge denied the motion to stay the execution of convicted serial killer Bobby Joe Long filed by his attorneys last week. 

Judge Michelle Sisco issued her ruling Monday afternoon.  

Long's attorneys had asked for a stay of execution, arguing that the lethal combination of drugs used by the state would cause him undue pain due to a prior traumatic brain injury.

They also argued in one of their claims that Long's constitutional rights were violated by the Department of Corrections when he was denied access to a writing and a pen before and during the execution process, and denied him a second witness to oversee the IV insertion process when his lethal injection was administered. 

Sisco's final court order denied all six claims within the motion. With regard to Long's attorney's claiming the combination of drugs used by the state would cause "needless suffering," the judge referred to state testimony pointing out that the dosage of etomidate, the anesthetic used by the state as part of the lethal injection protocol, would be sufficient to render even someone with TBI of the type Long suffers from unconscious for the duration of the execution procedure. Thus, the procedure could not, even in Long's case, be considered "cruel."

Long is guilty of murdering at least eight women in Tampa Bay during the 1980s. 

Long has been on death row nearly 34 years. The 65-year-old received the death penalty for the May 1984 death of 22-year-old Michelle Denise Simms, a former beauty contestant from California. He was arrested later that year in the kidnapping of a 17-year-old girl who managed to convince him to let her go. She gave police information that led to his arrest.

He eventually pleaded guilty to killing eight other women in the Tampa area and claimed to have raped 40 women in three states.

Governor Ron DeSantis signed Long's death warrant on April 23.  Long is scheduled to die by lethal injection on May 23 at the Florida State Prison.