STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man who killed an 8-year-old woman and her grandmother on an evening wherein he drank closely and used medicine is about to be executed Thursday.
Edward James, 63, is scheduled to obtain a deadly injection beginning at 6 p.m. at Florida State Jail outdoors Starke below a death warrant signed in February by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Barring a last-minute reprieve, the execution is to be the second this yr in Florida, which is planning a third in April.
Three different executions have been scheduled this week round the USA: Louisiana put a person to dying Tuesday using nitrogen gas for the primary time because it resumed executions after a 15-year hiatus. Arizona on Wednesday lethally injected a man who had kidnapped and murdered his girlfriend’s ex-husband. One other deadly injection is planned Thursday in Oklahoma.
James drew the dying penalty for the Sept. 19, 1993, killings of 8-year-old Toni Neuner and Betty Dick, 58, the kid’s grandmother. James had been renting a room in Dick’s home in Casselberry. the place Toni Neuner and three different kids have been additionally staying that night time.
Courtroom data present James drank as much as 24 beers at a celebration, downed some gin and likewise took LSD earlier than returning to his room at Dick’s home. The woman was raped and strangled to dying. The opposite kids weren’t harmed.
James, who pleaded responsible to the fees, was additionally discovered responsible of the rape and of stealing Dick’s jewellery and automobile after stabbing her 21 occasions. Courtroom paperwork present James drove the automobile throughout the nation, often promoting items of bijou till he was arrested on Oct. 6 of that yr in Bakersfield, California.
Police obtained a videotaped confession from James, who regardless of his responsible pleas was sentenced to dying upon an 11-1 suggestion by a jury.
James’ legal professionals filed a number of appeals with state and federal courts, all of which have been denied. Most just lately, the Florida Supreme Courtroom rejected an argument that James’ longtime use of medicine and alcohol, a number of head accidents and a coronary heart assault in 2023 led to psychological decline that may make his execution merciless and weird punishment.
The justices, nonetheless, agreed with a decrease courtroom determination that “James’s cognitive points don’t defend him from execution.” The courtroom additionally rejected an argument from James’ legal professionals that the center assault he suffered in jail led to deprivation of oxygen that affected his mind and ought to be thought-about new proof to halt the execution.
Even whether it is new proof, the courtroom decided, the “defendant can’t set up that such proof would seemingly yield a much less extreme sentence at a brand new penalty part.”
The nonprofit Loss of life Penalty Info Heart mentioned Florida makes use of a three-drug cocktail for its deadly injection: a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the center.
Earlier this yr, James Ford was executed for the 1997 killings of a pair in Charlotte County — witnessed by their toddler daughter, who survived. DeSantis additionally signed a dying warrant for the April 8 execution of Michael Tanzi for the 2000 slaying of a lady within the Florida Keys.
