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DELAND -- A judge ordered deputies to tape a convicted killer's mouth shut Thursday after the man repeatedly and loudly interrupted a sentencing hearing to proclaim his innocence.

In an unusual step already drawing criticism, Volusia County Circuit Judge S. James Foxman had Richard England, 32, gagged and handcuffed after the defendant kept blurting out, "I didn't do it."

England also directed numerous other comments to the judge, the jury, the prosecutor and the victim's family.

The jury did not see the deputies carry out the order, but when the jurors returned to the courtroom they saw England sitting at the defense table in handcuffs with silver-gray duct tape covering his mouth as the attorneys made their closing arguments.

Jurors deliberated about an hour before voting 8-4 to recommend death for England, whom they found guilty Monday of beating a 71-year-old Daytona Beach man to death with a fire poker. Prosecutors said England killed Howard "Cooter" Wetherell out of a hatred for homosexuals. It was the second time England has been convicted of murder.

Foxman is expected to sentence England in July, and judges usually follow a jury's recommendation. But the decision to gag the defendant will probably be the basis for appeals that tie the case up for years, according to some legal experts.

Steven G. Mason, a veteran criminal-defense lawyer from Orlando, said taping England's mouth was a poor decision.

"Not only are you demeaning the process, you are minimizing this person and this person's life," said Mason, who is on the board of directors for the Central Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "It's animal-like to tape his mouth shut so he can't speak."

Mason said it would have been better for the judge to send the jury out and put England in a sort of "timeout" session for an hour or so. If he still refused to behave, the judge could have recessed for the day. If he still did not relent and the situation was extreme, the judge could have ordered England out of the courtroom for the remainder of the penalty phase, Mason said.

The appellate courts in their rulings in death cases have repeatedly noted that "death is different," Mason said. That means every precaution to ensure a fair trial should be taken because of the finality of the sentence, he said.

Charles Weisselberg, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, agreed the duct-tape decision may have a lasting impact on the case.

"The judge's decision to put duct tape over Mr. England's mouth would almost certainly be taken by the jury that the judge himself felt this was the only way to restrain Mr. England," Weisselberg said.

He called the action "a potentially overwhelming message" to jurors.

Assistant State Attorney Ed Davis called England the most disruptive defendant in a courtroom he had seen in 20 years.

Jake Ross, a defense witness who worked 20 years for the State Attorney's Office in Volusia County before becoming a private investigator, said he was surprised by the move.

Perhaps the most famous gagging order was the case of Black Panther founder Bobby Seale, who was tried separately from the Chicago Seven after a judge had him bound and gagged because of his inflammatory language during a 1969 trial. This was not the first time a defendant has been gagged in Volusia. Seventh Circuit Judge Kim C. Hammond gagged Larry Richardson in 1995 after he ranted against the judge, prosecutor and witnesses and directed comments to the family of his 70-year-old victim.

England told the jury that he had no knowledge of a gay relationship between Wetherell and England's friend Michael Douglas Jackson, who has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for his role in the killing.

Wetherell was found dead in the shower of his Daytona Beach condominium on July 2, 2001. Jackson, 21, was arrested days later after crashing Wetherell's car into an ambulance. He told investigators he saw England strike Wetherell repeatedly with a poker but recanted before the trial and testified that he alone was responsible. At age 16, England was convicted of second-degree murder and served nine years after using a motorcycle muffler to beat to death a man he said he caught trying to molest a teenage friend.