florida death row | My Crime Library

Loran Cole Execution Scheduled For Today

Loran Cole is set to be executed today, August 29 2024, by the State of Florida for the murder of a college student

According to court documents Loran Cole and William Paul would attack a pair of siblings at the Ocala National Forest in 1994.

The brother, John Edward, was tied to a tree and his throat would be slit. The sister would be brought to another location where she was sexually assaulted

Loran Cole would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. William Paul would plead guilty and was sentenced to life in prison

Loran Cole is scheduled to be executed after six pm Florida time by lethal injection

Loran Cole was executed by lethal injection on August 29 2024

Loran Cole Execution Scheduled

A Florida man convicted of killing a college freshman and raping the student’s sister while the siblings camped in a national forest 30 years ago is scheduled to be executed Thursday.

Unless the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes, Loran Cole is set to be put to death just after 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison for the 1994 killing. Cole is also serving two life sentences for rape.

According to court records, Cole and a friend, William Paul, befriended the two college students in the Ocala National Forest. After talking around a fire, the men offered to take the siblings to see a pond. While away from the campsite, Cole and Paul jumped the victims and robbed them.

The brother, 18, who was a student at Florida State University, was beaten, had his throat slit and left in the forest. His sister, who was 21 and a senior at Eckerd College, was taken back to the campsite, where Cole tied her up and raped her.

The woman was left tied to a tree overnight and raped again the next day. She eventually managed to free herself and flag down a driver for help. Police found her brother’s body lying face down on the ground, according to court records.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the death warrant for Cole last month.

Lawyers for Cole, 57, raised several points in their appeal, including the fact that Cole was an inmate at a state-run reform school where he and other boys were beaten and raped. The state has since apologized for the abuse and this year passed a law authorizing reparations for inmates at the now-shuttered reform school.

The state Supreme Court rejected the defense’s arguments.

Paul and Cole were convicted of first-degree murder. Paul was sentenced to life.

The execution will be the first in Florida since Michael Zack was put to death last October for the 1996 killing of Ravonne Smith.

https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/florida-to-execute-man-convicted-of-1994-killing-of-college-student-in-national-forest/3403745

Loran Cole Execution

A Florida man convicted of killing a college freshman and raping the murder victim’s older sister while the siblings camped in a national forest 30 years ago was executed Thursday.

Loran Cole, 57, received a lethal injection and was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. at Florida State Prison for the 1994 killing of the 18-year-old student. Cole also was serving two life sentences for rape.

Cole did not have a last statement. “No sir,” he said when asked if he had some final words.

After the procedure began about 6 p.m. Cole briefly looked up at a witness in the front row. After three minutes, he began taking deep breaths, his cheeks puffing out. For a brief moment, his entire body trembled. Five minutes into the procedure, the warden shook him and shouted his name. Cole then appeared to stop breathing and then was declared dead

Cole and a friend, William Paul, befriended the two college students in the Ocala National Forest, court records showed. After talking around a fire, the men offered to take the siblings to see a pond. While away from the campsite, Cole and Paul jumped the victims and robbed them, according to the records.

The brother, 18, who was a student at Florida State University, was beaten and had his throat slit and left in the forest. His sister, then a 21-year-old senior at Eckerd College, was taken back to the campsite, where Cole tied her up and raped her, according to the record.

The woman was left tied to a tree overnight and raped again the next day. She eventually managed to free herself and flagged down a driver for help. Police found her brother’s body lying face down on the ground, according to court records.

Paul and Cole were both convicted of first-degree murder. Paul was sentenced to life in prison.

Although they did not attend the execution, the parents of the victims had a statement read afterward by corrections officials. They wrote about how the murder of their son and the attack on their daughter had shattered their lives. But they said their daughter had gone on to become a wife, teacher and professor.

“Though invisible to others, our daughter bears internal scars that will never go away. She battled years of fear, pain and sorrow,” the statement said. “She is our hero.”

“We are void of feelings and empathy for Mr. Cole. He placed himself into this arena,” it added. “He does not deserve mercy.”

The Associated Press does not generally identify victims of sexual assault unless they come forward publicly.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the death warrant for Cole last month.

The execution was the first in Florida since Michael Zack was put to death last October for the 1996 killing of Ravonne Smith.

Department of Corrections officials described Cole as “compliant” in the hours before his execution and said he had two visitors, including his son.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied Cole’s final appeal earlier Thursday.

His lawyers had raised several points in seeking a stay of execution, including the fact that Cole was an inmate at a state-run reform school where he and other boys were beaten and raped. The state has since apologized for the abuse and this year passed a law authorizing reparations for inmates at the now-shuttered reform school. The lawyers also argued Cole shouldn’t be executed because he was mentally ill and had brain damage and Parkinson’s disease.

https://apnews.com/article/florida-execution-loran-cole-death-penalty-b1f94798d3f6adf86f21fc611dd4c341

Tiffany Cole Death Sentence Overturned

Tiffany Cole is no longer on Florida Death Row as at her resentencing hearing the jury voted 10 -2 that her crimes did not warrant the death penalty

Tiffany Cole was convicted of the murders of her neighbors James and Carol Sumner. According to court documents Tiffany Cole would go to her former neighbors home asking to use the telephone. When she was granted access to the house Alan Wade, Bruce Nixon and Michael Jackson would push their way into the home.

James and Carol Sumner would be bound with duct taped and brought to a remote location where they would be buried alive

Bruce Nixon would cooperate with police and received a 45 year prison sentence. Alan Wade, Michael Jackson and Tiffany Cole would be sentenced to death. Alan Wade had his death sentence overturned and was sentenced to life without parole. Michael Jackson remains on death row in Florida

Tiffany Cole More News

A jury voted 10-2 to spare the life of a woman convicted in Jacksonville’s notorious “buried-alive” case in 2005, according to Times-Union news partner First Coast News.

The jury found co-defendant Tiffany Ann Cole did not deserve the ultimate punishment for her role in the crime. She is now sentenced to life in prison.

Cole, 41, was previously convicted of murdering Reggie and Carol Sumner in July 2005. The 61-year-olds were kidnapped from their Jacksonville home, bound in duct tape and driven to some remote woods in South Georgia where they were buried alive.

Cole knew the couple, who were friends with her father and once lived in her neighborhood

Her original 2007 death sentence was thrown out in 2017 after Florida began requiring unanimous jury verdicts in death cases. Cole’s first jury was split 9-3. While her resentencing was in process, however, the law changed again. Florida juries can now sentence someone to death with a vote of just 8-4.

During closing arguments, attorney Jay Plotkin, the original case prosecutor, told jurors they should hold Cole accountable for the carefully premeditated “horrible acts.” He noted Cole held the flashlight as her three co-defendants dug the “death pit” two days before the murders.

“While she may not have turned a shovel of dirt from the hole where the Summers were left to die, she was certainly an instrument — and I would submit the catalyst — of why Reggie and Carol Sumner died. Simply stated, these murders would not have happened but for her.

Plotkin said she deserved death even though her boyfriend and co-defendant Michael James Jackson was the mastermind. “What evidence is there that she was dragged kicking and screaming into the dark night of crime by Michael Jackson?” he asked. “The only people dragged into the night of the crime were the people killed in that hole.”

Cole’s attorney Julie Schlax argued she has changed since her arrest and has been an inspiration to other inmates.

“Tiffany Cole is not ‘the worst of the worst,’” she said. “I submit how she has lived her life and truly found an ability to overcome those shortcomings that led her to Georgia in the middle of the night.”She reminded jurors about extensive witness testimony that Cole suffered from low self-esteem, early drug abuse and had been molested by her father.

“Does it excuse it? Of course not, Schlax said. “None of us will ever forget what happened to the Sumners in 2005. And nor should we. Tiffany Cole won’t forget either. There will not be a day of her life that she spends behind bars [not] thinking about what occurred in 2005, and what led her to be a part of that. But Tiffany Cole is so much more than that. And she actually has the ability to contribute. We ask you not to judge her solely for her actions of 2005.”

Schlax noted Cole would die in prison regardless, and that a life sentence is a sufficient punishment.

Cole’s co-defendants Jackson and Alan Lyndell Wade were already resentenced. Wade was given a life sentence last year; Jackson was resentenced to death in May. A fourth co-defendant, Bruce Nixon, was sentenced to 45 years in prison for cooperating with investigators.

https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/crime/2023/08/23/verdict-spares-tiffany-cole-death-in-jacksonville-buried-alive-case/70663608007/

James Barnes Execution Scheduled For Tonight

James Barnes is scheduled to be executed by the State of Florida tonight, August 3 2023, for the murder of Patricia Miller

According to court documents James Barnes would enter the home of Patricia Miller where he would strip naked. Patricia Miller would be tied up, sexually assaulted and murdered. Barnes would set her bed on fire before fleeing

James Barnes would later be arrested and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife and would later confess to the murder of Patricia Miller

James Barnes would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

James Barnes More News

Florida is preparing to execute a man convicted of strangling his wife and brutally murdering another woman years earlier — a lethal injection that’s expected to proceed on schedule after he dropped all legal appeals and said he wants to accept his punishment.

James Phillip Barnes, 61, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Thursday at Florida State Prison in Starke. He would be the fifth person put to death in the state this year.

James Barnes was serving a life sentence for the 1997 strangulation of his wife, 44-year-old Linda Barnes, when he wrote letters in 2005 to a state prosecutor claiming responsibility for the killing years earlier of Patricia “Patsy” Miller, a nurse who lived in a condominium in Melbourne, along Florida’s east coast.

James Barnes represented himself in court hearings where he offered no defense, pleaded guilty to killing Miller and did not attempt to seek a life sentence rather than the death penalty. Miller, who was 41 when Barnes killed her, had had some unspecified negative interactions with him, according to a jailhouse interview he gave to film director Werner Herzog.

“There were several events that happened (with Miller). I felt terribly humiliated, that’s all I can say,” Barnes said in the interview.

Barnes killed Miller at her home on April 20, 1988. When he pleaded guilty, Barnes told the judge that after breaking into Miller’s unit, “I raped her twice. I tried to strangle her to death. I hit her head with a hammer and killed her and I set her bed on fire,” according to court records.

There was also DNA evidence linking Barnes to Miller’s killing. Barnes pleaded guilty to killing her and was sentenced to death on Dec. 13, 2007. He also pleaded guilty to sexual battery, arson, and burglary with an assault and battery.

James Barnes killed his wife in 1997 after she discovered that he was dealing drugs. Her body was found stuffed in a closet after she was strangled, court records show. Barnes has claimed to have killed at least two other people but has never been charged in those cases.

Barnes had been in and out of prison since his teenage years, including convictions for grand theft, forgery, burglary and trafficking in stolen property.

In the Miller case, state lawyers appointed to represent Barnes filed initial appeals, including one that led to mental competency evaluations. Two doctors found that Barnes had symptoms of personality disorder with “borderline antisocial and sociopathic features.” However, they pronounced him competent to understand his legal situation and plead guilty, and his convictions and death sentence were upheld.

After Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his death warrant in June, a Brevard County judge granted Barnes’ motion to drop all appeals involving mitigating evidence such as his mental condition and said “that he wanted to accept responsibility for his actions and to proceed to execution (his death) without any delay,” court records show.

Though unusual, condemned inmates sometimes don’t pursue every legal avenue to avoid execution. The Death Penalty Information Center reports that about 150 such inmates have been put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed the death penalty as constitutional in 1976.

The Florida Supreme Court accepted the Brevard County ruling, noting last week that no other motion seeking a stay of execution for Barnes had been filed in state or federal court.

n the Herzog interview, Barnes said he converted to Islam in prison and wanted to clear his conscience about the Miller case during the holy month of Ramadan.

“They say I’m remorseless. I’m not. There are no more questions on this case. And I’m going to be executed,” Barnes said.

In a recent letter, the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops asked DeSantis to grant a stay of execution and commute Barnes’ sentence to life in prison even though Barnes isn’t seeking such relief. The Catholic church opposes the death penalty.

“Mr. Barnes’ willing acceptance of death, the punishment put in place by the justice system, does not absolve the state from bringing it about. Simply put, no one should be executed in our modern penal system, even if they willingly accept it,” the letter said.

https://apnews.com/article/florida-execution-phillip-linda-barnes-patsy-miller-bfe6d468b3b7d27ee8de10187fa6f459

James Barnes Execution

A Florida man who recently dropped all legal appeals was executed Thursday for the 1988 murder of a woman who was sexually assaulted, killed with a hammer and then set on fire in her own bed.

James Phillip Barnes, 61, was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison in Starke.

Lying on a gurney, Barnes appeared to already have his eyes shut when the curtain was opened for witnesses. He didn’t respond when prison officials asked if he had a final statement, and he remained motionless except for breathing for about 10 minutes until that stopped. A doctor then pronounced him dead

The 61-year-old inmate was sentenced to death for the murder of nurse Patricia “Patsy” Miller. It was the fifth execution in Florida this year.

One of the victim’s siblings, Andrew Miller, witnessed the execution and said he came to remember his sister.

“I did not come here to watch someone die. I came here to honor our sister, Patricia Miller,” he told reporters afterward. “No one should live in fear within the safety of their own home. No woman, no child, no animal should have that fear. We did.”

Barnes was serving a life sentence for the 1997 strangulation of his wife, 44-year-old Linda Barnes, when he wrote letters in 2005 to a state prosecutor claiming responsibility for killing Miller years earlier at her condominium in Melbourne on Florida’s east coast.

Barnes represented himself in court hearings where he offered no defense, pleaded guilty to killing Miller and did not attempt to seek a life sentence rather than the death penalty

Miller, who was 41 when Barnes killed her on April 20, 1988, had some previous unspecified negative interactions with him, according to a jailhouse interview he gave German film director Werner Herzog.

“There were several events that happened (with Miller). I felt terribly humiliated, that’s all I can say,” Barnes said in the interview.

When he pleaded guilty, Barnes told the judge that after breaking into Miller’s unit, “I raped her twice. I tried to strangle her to death. I hit her head with a hammer and killed her and I set her bed on fire,” according to court records.

There was also DNA evidence linking Barnes to Miller’s killing. After pleading guilty, Barnes was sentenced to death on Dec. 13, 2007. He also pleaded guilty to sexual battery, arson, and burglary with an assault and battery.

Barnes killed his wife in 1997 after she discovered that he was dealing drugs. Her body was found stuffed in a closet after she was strangled, court records show. Barnes has claimed to have killed at least two other people but has never been charged in those cases.

Barnes had been in and out of prison since his teenage years, including time served for convictions for grand theft, forgery, burglary and trafficking in stolen property.

After DeSantis signed the inmate’s death warrant in June, a Brevard County judge granted Barnes’ motion to drop all appeals involving mitigating evidence such as his mental condition and said “that he wanted to accept responsibility for his actions and to proceed to execution (his death) without any delay,” court records show.

The Florida Supreme Court accepted the Brevard County ruling, noting that no other motion seeking a stay of execution for Barnes had been filed in state or federal court

n the Herzog interview, Barnes said he had converted to Islam in prison and wanted to clear his conscience about the Miller case during the holy month of Ramadan.

“They say I’m remorseless. I’m not. There are no more questions on this case. And I’m going to be executed,” Barnes said

https://apnews.com/article/florida-execution-phillip-linda-barnes-patsy-miller-ddd049645a792429e70d15819074a164

Joseph Zieler Florida Death Row

Joseph Zieler was sentenced to death by the State of Florida for the murders of Robin Cornell and her babysitter, Lisa Story

According to court documents Joseph Zieler would break into a Cape Coral apartment in May 1990. Zieler would sexually assault both eleven year old Robin Cornell and her babysitter Lisa Story before suffocating the pair. The brutal crime would go unsolved until Zieler would be arrested in 2016 and finally in 2023 he would be found guilty and sentenced to death

During his sentencing Joseph Zieler attempted to attack his lawyer however he was quickly restrained by courtroom security

Joseph Zieler Now

Joseph Zieler has yet to be moved into the Florida Department Of Corrections

Joseph Zieler Case

Joseph Zieler will soon find out if he will spend the next 25 years in prison or be sentenced to death for killing 11-year-old Robin Cornell and 32-year-old Lisa Story 33 years ago.

A jury listened to Jan Cornell, Robin’s mother, who described Robin as a joy. She talked about how her daughter was funny, caring, and very loving to everyone including family, friends, classmates, and anyone who met her.

“We’ve lived in fear. We have lived in sadness. We miss them both,” Jan said.

Randy Richards, Lisa Story’s fiancé, also talked to jurors. He told them Story was happy with the way life was going and she was doing well at her job.

“Her impact across society was unbelievable,” he said.

In the state’s argument, it was testimony like this and photos the state displayed to the jury as to why they said Zieler should get the death penalty. They are putting forward four aggravating factors, which means there are factors that make the crime worse, calling for the death penalty.

The defendant was previously convicted of another capital felony or of a felony involving the use or threat of violence to the person.
The capital felony was committed while the defendant was engaged in felony burglary.
The capital felony was a homicide and was committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification.
The capital felony was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel.

Jurors must come to a unanimous decision during this phase. They have to agree state attorneys proved the factors beyond a reasonable doubt. If they all agree, that’s when only eight of the 12 jurors are needed to recommend the death penalty. This is because of a new state law in Florida, which was sparked by the sentencing of the Parkland shooter.
Ultimately it’s still up to the judge to decide Zieler’s fate, though the recommendation has to strongly be taken into consideration

However, the defense has nothing to prove, besides trying to convince the jury Zieler’s life should be spared. They brought in one doctor on Tuesday with another coming in on Wednesday.

Dr. Julie Harper, a psychiatrist, evaluated Zieler back in July 2022. She also spoke with several of his family members and others who knew him. They focused on his childhood first, discussing school and the type of home he grew up in.

“Joanne [Zieler’s mother] didn’t demonstrate a lot of caring or loving behaviors,” Harper said. “He was very frightened of his father.”

The doctor went on to say because his father was abusive to Zieler’s family members, it made Zieler’s childhood complicated.

“This is a complicated person to grow up with when you’re supposed to be learning about rules of society and being frightened to break rules in the home because of the risk to yourself, so I think that makes him very confused regarding his father,” Harper explained.

She also evaluated him mentally and later diagnosed him with major depressive disorder and mild neuro-cognitive disorder. The doctor spoke at several head injuries Zieler sustained from accidents and falling as a child.

In some of the tests, Harper said Zieler did not do well in attention in concentration, recognition memory, spatial processing, verbal fluency and reasoning and conceptual shifting. She even addressed in outburst in court last week.

“Talking on and on and not stopping when the judge directed him to do so, that’s consistent with this low score on reasoning and conceptual shifting where he can’t shift gears,” she said.

On Wednesday morning, A neurologist testified on behalf of the defense during the penalty phase.

The doctor said Zieler has Parkinsonism, not Parkinson’s disease. This means it looks like the disease, but it isn’t and doesn’t respond to treatment.

The state is going into its rebuttal, followed by closing arguments.

It will then be in the hands of the jury for the recommendation.

The jury will recommend either death or at least 25 years in prison.

The judge will review the recommendation before handing down the sentence.

https://www.fox4now.com/news/local-news/lee-county/penalty-phase-begins-for-joseph-zieler

Duane Owen Execution Scheduled For Tonight

Duane Owen is set to be executed by the State of Florida tonight, June 15 2023, for two separate murders and sexual assaults

According to court documents Duane Owen would attack 14-year-old babysitter Karen Slattery in March 1984. The teenage girl would be sexually assaulted and murdered. Two months later Owen would sexually assault and murder Georgianna Worden on May 29, 1984.

Duane Owen would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death in 1986

Duane Owen News

Thursday, convicted murderer Duane Owen, 62, is scheduled to be executed in Florida, almost 40 years after the separate brutal murders of a mother and a 14-year-old babysitter in Palm Beach County.

Owen’s attorney has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt Thursday’s execution, arguing that Owen is not competent to be executed.

He “lacks a rational understanding of the connection between his crime and impending execution due to his fixed psychotic delusions and dementia,” Lisa M. Fusaro argued in the filing.

Attorneys for the state of Florida filed their own motions Tuesday arguing the Supreme Court should not halt the execution, saying it is “not in the public interest” to further delay punishment using the same mental health arguments that have failed in numerous attempts before.

Owen confessed to breaking into a Delray Beach home in 1984, where 14-year-old Karen Slattery was babysitting, waited until she put the children to bed and then confronting her nude except for boxer shorts, gloves and socks, holding a knife and a hammer.

He stabbed her 18 times, then dragged her unconscious body to a bedroom where he raped her.

Afterward, court records show he said he checked in on the sleeping children, then took a shower and left.

Two months later, investigators found Owen’s fingerprint on a book near the body of Georgianna Worden, 38, of Boca Raton.

Worden had been bludgeoned to death with a hammer and then raped and posed while her two daughters slept in the next room. They discovered her body the next morning.

Court records show Owen had also broken into the homes of two other women in a similar fashion and brutally attacked and assaulted them.

Owen was convicted and sentenced to death in both cases, but his conviction in Slattery’s murder was overturned by the Supreme Court on an argument that a statement he made during his confession should have halted the questioning.

That decision was later reversed, and Owen received a new trial in 1999, although he was already facing the death penalty in Worden’s case.

Owen used an insanity defense in that trial, claiming he wanted to be a woman and thought he could become one by killing a woman.

The jury once again convicted him, and Judge Harold Cohen sentenced him to death.

Attorneys appealed the conviction, but the Supreme Court affirmed it.

Unless there is a stay by the U.S. Supreme Court, Duane Owen is scheduled to die by lethal injection Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Florida State Prison in Starke.

WPBF 25 News Investigative Reporter Terri Parker, who covered the murders in 1984 and the retrial in 1999, will be a witness to the execution.

https://www.wpbf.com/article/florida-duane-owen-execution/44201622#