The Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to halt next week’s scheduled execution of Victor Tony Jones in the 1990 murders of a couple in Miami-Dade County, rejecting arguments about abuse Jones suffered as a child at a notorious state reform school.

Attorneys for Jones, 64, contended that “newly discovered evidence” about his abuse at the now-shuttered Okeechobee School likely would lead to him receiving a life sentence in a retrial. That evidence stemmed from Jones and hundreds of other men receiving compensation this year from the state because of abuse at the Okeechobee School and another facility, the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys.

But the Supreme Court, in a 5-1 decision, said arguments about the abuse were “procedurally barred.”

“The alleged abuse occurred nearly 50 years

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