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Carl Shriner Florida Execution

Carl Shriner was executed by the State of Florida for the murder of a store clerk during a robbery. According to court documents Carl Shriner would shoot and kill Judith Ann Carter during a robbery at a convenience store. Carl Shriner would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Carl Shriner would be executed by way of the electric chair on June 20 1984

Carl Shriner More News

Carl Shriner, who spent most of his 30 years behind bars but found ‘the light’ on death row, died in the electric chair today for the murder of a young mother in a convenience store holdup.

Shriner, who was sent to reform school when he was 8, died at 7:12 a.m. in the wooden electric chair at Florida State Prison

He was the 20th man executed in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, and the sixth in Florida — twice as many as any other state.

After he was strapped into the chair, the lanky Shriner read a final statement from a paper held in front of him by Prisons Superintendent Richard Dugger.

‘Many of my friends have mentioned for me to look for the light,’ Shriner said in a steady voice. ‘But I already saw the light when I accepted Christ years ago. Only now I get to go stand in it and enjoy it with the Lord.’

Shriner nodded to his attorney, Ken Lawrence, one of 25 people in the witness chamber. When black-hooded executioner — hired for $150 a job through classified advertising — threw the switch, up to 2,000 volts surged through Shriner’s body. His chest heaved and his fists clenched, and the body did not relax until the current was turned off 90 seconds later

Prison spokesman Vernon Bradford said Shriner spent a sleepless night meeting with his minister, the Rev. Fred Lawrence, and ate a hearty last meal of steak, potatoes, corn on the cob, salad, cantaloupe, strawberries and ice cream.

‘He ate everything from the cream on the strawberries to the ice cream in the cantaloupe,’ said Bradford.

Shriner then took a shower and was shaved in preparation for the 7 a.m. EDT execution in the three-legged, oaken electric chair called ‘Old Sparky’ by the 219 men and one woman on Florida’s death row.

About 40 demonstrators, nearly all of them agaist the death penalty, gathered in pre-dawn fog outside the gate of the sprawling Florida State Prison.

Shriner told reporters Monday he had found Christ in prison and was prepared to die.

‘Spiritually I ain’t scared, but physically, as long as I’m in this human form, I’m scared,’ Shriner said.

He was sentenced to die for the Oct. 22, 1976, murder of Judith Ann Carter, 34, during the robbery of a Gainesville convenience store where she worked. Mrs. Carter, the mother of four young children, was shot five times.

Shriner, one of 10 children of a Cleveland window washer and his wife, who now lives in Phoenix, Ariz., had been released from a Florida prison only 23 days before the murder after serving most of a five-year term for robbery in Miami.

He admitted driving the getaway car, but another man, whom he refused to name, killed Mrs. Carter. That claim was never made at his trial.

Shriner was first scheduled to be executed April 21, 1982, but the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta intervened after attorneys claimed he had ineffective trial counsel.

The Atlanta court intervened again Monday, but lifted the temporary stay late Tuesday, saying his claims of ineffective trial counsel had ‘either been previously determined, have no merit or constitute an abuse of the writ.’

Defense lawyers then went to the Supreme Court, which took only 90 minutes to vote 6-2 vote not to block the execution.

Shriner said he felt sorry for Mrs. Carter’s family, but added ‘I don’t know the people personally. My family loves me just like your family loves you.’

He said neither his parents, nor any of his seven brothers and two sisters could afford to come across country from Phoenix to witness the execution

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/06/20/Carl-Elson-Shriner-who-spent-most-of-his-30/2409456552000/

David Washington Florida Execution

David Washington was executed by the State of Florida for three murders that were committed during a ten day period. According to court documents David Washington would go on a crime spree over ten days that would leave three people dead and would also include the crimes of torture and kidnapping. David Washington would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. David Washington would executed by way of the electric chair on June 13, 1984

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David Washington, a former choirboy who stabbed three people to death, died in the electric chair today after holding his daughter on his knee and telling her ‘I want you to do better.’

‘I’d like to say to the families of all my victims, I’m sorry for all the grief and heartache I brought to them,’ Washington said after he was strapped into the electric chair. ‘If my death brings them any satisfaction, so be it

Washington, 34, the second black man executed in the South in two days and the 22nd man put to death since the Supreme Court dropped its capital punishment ban in 1976, died at 7:09 a.m. He was the seventh man executed in Florida, more than any other state.

The tall, slender condemned man also had last words for the 220 men he left behind on Florida’s death row.

He stumbled several times over the words and explained ‘I’m kind of nervous, that’s all.’

‘To all the guys on death row, I’d like to say don’t bow down to defeat … without a fight.’

Washington entered the death chamber with a small smile on his face and chuckled at the words of one of the guards who escorted him

The condemned man met with his wife and his 12-year-old daughter Florence late Thursday night. The Rev. Joe Ingle said Washington sat her on his lap, lifted her chin and told her ‘I’m the one who got me here.’ ‘

The tall, slender condemned man also had last words for the 220 men he left behind on Florida’s death row.

He stumbled several times over the words and explained ‘I’m kind of nervous, that’s all.’

‘To all the guys on death row, I’d like to say don’t bow down to defeat … without a fight.’

Washington entered the death chamber with a small smile on his face and chuckled at the words of one of the guards who escorted him.

‘I want you to do better,’ he told the sobbing child. ‘I want you to set some goals for yourself and I want you to hit the books.’

Washington made his daughter repeat what he had said, Ingle reported, and the little girl left in tears. ‘Her heart was broken,’ Ingle said. ‘They were leading her daddy away to kill him

I don’t think there was a day he was here that he didn’t hate himself for what he had done,’ Ingle said.

The parents of Arthur Goode, sex-killer of two small boys who was executed April 5, were among about 40 death penalty protesters standing under a full moon outside the state prison as day began to break.

‘We thought we’d try to do a little good,’ said Mildred Goode. ‘I think if it was enough people it would make a difference.’

Ivon Ray Stanley, 28, died in the Georgia electric chair Thursday for the 1976 slaying of an insurance agent.

Washington was to have been part of the first double execution in the United States in 19 years, but the Supreme Court Thursday upheld a stay for Jimmy Lee Smith, who was scheduled to die a few minutes after Washington.

Smith, described by prison officials as ‘delighted,’ was moved out of the death chamber he had shared with Washington near ‘Old Sparky,’ the grim name given the electric chair by inmates at the Florida State Prison.

The high court rejected Washington’s final appeal late Thursday night, eight hours before he died.

Washington was awakened at 4:30 a.m. EDT and ate heartily of fried shrimp, fried oysters, french fries, hot rolls, vanilla ice cream and lemonade for his last meal.

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/07/13/David-Leroy-Washington-a-former-choirboy-who-stabbed-three/3676458539200/

Ernest Dobbert Florida Execution

Ernest Dobbert was executed by the State of Florida for the murders of two of his children. According to court documents Ernest Dobbert would murder his daughter Kelly Ann, 9, on Dec. 31, 1971. Two months later Ernest Dobbert would murder his son seven year old Ryder. Both children endured months of beatings before their deaths. Ernest Dobbert would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Ernest Dobbert would be executed by electric chair on September 7 1984

Ernest Dobbert More News

Ernest John Dobbert Jr., called ‘the most hated man on Florida’s death row’ for the torture deaths of his young daughter and son, went to his death in the electric chair as 20 people outside the prison cheered and applauded.

Dobbert, 46, was pronounced dead at 10:09 a.m. EDT after the Supreme Court denied his last-minute appeal. He accepted his death calmly with a tight-lipped smile and made no final statement

Prison Superintendent Richard Dugger asked, ‘Ernest Dobbert, do you have any last words?’

‘No, No,’ Dobbert said, shaking his head.

Then Dobbert, who said he had become a born-again Christian, winked twice at the Rev. Melvin Biggs of Lynchburg, Va., and his attorney, William P. White, an assistant puiblic defender from Jacksonville, Fla.

He mouthed several words at the two which looked like, ‘I love you.’

As the power was turned on, Dobbert’s fists clenched and then became progressively purple. His head and legs shaved and barefoot, Dobbert wore a new navy blue suit and white shirt.

Outside the sprawling lime-green prison, about 20 pro-death penalty activities cheered and applauded when the execution was announced. About 30 anti-capital punishment protesters gathered nearby and sang hymns

There was a sign in a late-model car following the hearse that carried Dobbert’s boby which said, ‘When murderers die, justice lives.’

Dobbert, a former tire recapper, spent his final hours with his family, including his 17-year-old daughter — the sister of the two children he killed. He refused a final meal.

Dobbert was the sixth man executed in Florida’s oaken electric chair this year and the eighth to die in the state since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. He was the 23rd executed in the United States since the ban was lifted.

Dobbert, a lanky, 200-pound native of Milwaukee, Wis., was convicted of first-degree murder for strangling his daughter, Kelly Ann, 9, Dec. 31, 1971, and sentenced to death. He also was convicted of second-degree murder for the death of his son, Ryder, 7, who died two months after Kelly Ann as the result of constant beatings.

Dobbert, who had claimed to be a victim of child abuse himself, had been scheduled to be part of a double execution Thursday. But he received a stay until today, and Nollie Lee Martin, also a convicted killer, was granted an indefinite delay while his appeal was heard

The Supreme Court, with Justices Thurgood Marshall and William Brennan dissenting, rejected Dobbert’s final appeal at 1:30 a.m. in Washington. Prison spokesman Vernon Bradford said Dobbert ‘was calm and resigned’ when he heard the court’s decision.

‘I think he probably anticipated the decision. I think he felt that way yesterday when the appeals court turned him down,’ Bradford said.

Dobbert, who had been scheduled to die in Florida’s electric chair twice before, was turned down by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta late Thursday and attorneys had rushed his case to the nation’s highest court.

The Atlanta appeals court allowed a temporary stay it had granted Dobbert earlier in the week to expire at 10 a.m. today and state prison officials set his execution for that hour.

Dobbert’s history of venting his violent rages on his children made him ‘the most hated man on Florida’s Death Row,’ officials said. Dobbert admitted beating his children, but denied killing any of them.

Bradford said Dobbert made no request for a special meal and when a breakfast of chipped beef on toast was brought to him, he turned it down.

He was visited late Thursday and early today by several family members including his mother Catherine Dobbert; sister Katherine Sartore; and 17-year-old daughter Honore. She was the little girl who Dobbert abandoned on the steps of a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., hospital when she was 5 while he was fleeing police following the murders.

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/09/07/Ernest-John-Dobbert-Jr-called-the-most-hated-man/7003641742736/

James Henry Florida Execution

James Henry was executed by the State of Florida for the murder of a man during a robbery. According to court documents James Henry would break in the victim home and in the process of robbing it would murder the homeowner Zellie Riley. James Henry would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. James Henry would be executed on September 20 1984 by way of the electric chair.

James Henry More News

James Dupree Henry, trembling and professing innocence, died in the electric chair today for the murder of an 81- year-old man in a robbery.

Mr. Henry, 34 years old, bade his mother and girlfriend farewell and ate raw oysters for the first time before he was put to death in the oak electric chair moments after a temporary stay of execution expired at 7 A.M. He was pronounced dead nine minutes later.

”My final words are ‘I am innocent,’ ” Mr. Henry said before the death hood was dropped over his face.

Mr. Henry was the 25th man executed in the United States since the Supreme Court lifted its ban on the death penalty in 1976, and the ninth man executed in Florida. Gov. Bob Graham signed death warrants Wednesday for two more Florida inmates

Mr. Henry was to have died Wednesday morning, but the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit granted him a 24-hour reprieve while it considered his case. He had a calm visit with his family, including a half- hour alone with his new-found mother, after the court rejected his appeal. ‘Ready to Go Either Way’

”He said he was ready to go either way the court told him,” said a State Correction Department spokesman, Vernon Bradford.

Mr. Henry’s final words were barely audible to witnesses because the microphone placed in front of him did not work. He winked at his attorney, Richard Jordanby, a public defender.

He was executed for the murder on March 24, 1974, of Z.L. Riley, his next door neighbor and an Orlando civil rights worker. Mr. Riley was found gagged, tied to a chair and beaten with a pistol. His throat was slit with a razor but the police said he strangled on the gag.

Mr. Henry, who repeatedly denied killing Mr. Riley, began a life of crime when he was 15 years old and once served a prison term for shooting a man in the eye. He Ate a Dozen Oysters

Mr. Henry ordered a dozen oysters with hot sauce and crackers for his last meal. He had never eaten oysters. He finished the dozen along with half a cantaloupe and a glass of grapefruit juice but refused an offer of more oysters.

Late Wednesday night, Mr. Henry was visited by his mother, Dora Mae Bradwell of Quincy, Fla., four sisters, two brothers, Flora Talley of Paterson, N.J., and his attorney.

James Henry, who was shifted from family to family while growing up, said he did not know who his real mother was until a week ago after she read of his impending execution and contacted him at the prison.

”In my time of need, she was there,” he said in an interview Tuesday.

https://www.nytimes.com/1984/09/21/us/asserting-innocence-convict-dies-in-florida-electric-chair.html

Timothy Palmes And Ronald Straight Florida Execution

Timothy Palmes - Florida Ronald Straight

Timothy Palmes and Ronald Straight would be executed by the State of Florida for a robbery murder. According to court documents Timothy Palmes and Ronald Straight would stage the robbery at the victims secretary home. When the victim arrived he was brutally beaten, had fingers amputated and stabbed to death. Timothy Palmes would be executed on November 8, 1984 and Ronald Straight would be executed on May 20, 1986

Timothy Palmes And Ronald Straight More News

Timothy Charles Palmes went calmly to his death today in Florida’s electric chair for the torture killing of a furniture store owner whose body was stuffed in a homemade box and dumped into a river.

Timothy Palmes, 37, was pronounced dead at 10:07 a.m. EST from a 90-second surge of 2,000 volts of electricity in the old, oaken chair known as ‘Old Sparky.’

Asked if he had any last words, Palmes gave a slight grin and said, ‘My family’s love has been my strength. That’s all. Goodbye.’

Then he shut his eyes tightly as guards put a gag over his mouth and a black flap over his face.

Palmes’ fists clinched as the hooded executioner turned on the electricity at 10:03 a.m. His chest heaved upward and the muscles in his arm and neck bulged. Light smoke came from an electrode on his lower right leg and his skin turned an ashen color.

Two doctors checked and pronounced the muscular 5-foot-10, 160-pounder dead four minutes later.

Prison Superintendent Richard Dugger then got on an open telephone line to Gov. Bob Graham and told him the execution had been carried out.

About 35 demonstrators — carrying signs, singing and praying – protested the execution in a pasture across from the prison, singing ‘We Shall Overcome’ as it was carried out. Ten others carried signs in favor of capital punishment and clapped when word was received that Palmes was dead

Timothy Palmes already was on probation for manslaughter when he and two accomplices joined in the 1976 robbery-murder of James Stone, 41, of Jacksonville. Stone’s body was found by divers on the bottom of the St. John’s River.

Palmes initially confessed but later pleaded innocent. He was convicted, however, on the testimony of a female accomplice who was granted immunity.

The execution was the 10th in Florida and the 30th in the nation since the Supreme Court lifted the ban on capital punishment in 1976.

Palmes lost his last appeal Wednesday when the Supreme Court refused by a 7-2 vote to intervene. Justices William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall dissented, as they do in all death penalty cases.

Prison spokesman Vernon Bradford said Palmes ate his final meal of T-bone steak, eggs, hash brown potatoes, biscuits, orange juice and coffee about 4:30 a.m. EST. ‘He ate everything he had asked for,’ said Bradford.

Bradford said Palmes met with his mother, Ann Palmes, three sisters and two nieces from 8 p.m. Wednesday until 1 a.m. today.

‘He has a very realistic attitude,’ said Bradford. ‘I think he thinks the time is here.’

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave Palmes a one-day reprieve Tuesday to allow him to appeal to the high court. That stay expired at 10 a.m. today and prison officials proceeded with the execution. His death warrant was to expire at noon

The condemned killer spent Wednesday in a holding cell about 30 feet from the death chamber, watching television and chatting with prison guards. He declined to hold a final news conference.

Palmes and Chester Levon Maxwell, 29, were both scheduled to die Wednesday in the nation’s first double execution in 19 years.

But Florida’s Supreme Court issued an indefinite stay Tuesday to Maxwell so it can rule on the merits of an appeal claiming he had organic brain damage that was not fully considered by his trial judge.

Palmes’ attorneys maintained he and co-defendant Ronald Straight, who remains on death row, were unfairly sentenced while accomplice Jane Albert, who testified for the prosecution, was granted immunity.

According to testimony, Albert, an employee at Stone’s furniture store, lured Stone to her apartment with the promise of meeting a woman.

When he arrived, Palmes and Straight jumped Stone, bound his hands and feet with wire, put a garbage bag over his head, beat him with a hammer and stabbed him 18 times.

The trio then stole $3,100 from Stone, stuffed his body in the weighted box, dumped it in the river and fled the state in Stone’s car. They were captured a week later in California.

Palmes had been scheduled to be executed in 1980, but a federal judge intervened.

Palmes spent his last few hours with an official observer who was hired by the Corrections Department to make sure he was not mistreated. His family visited until 1 a.m. and he did not ask that a minister be present.

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/11/08/Timothy-Charles-Palmes-went-calmly-to-his-death-today/2931468738000/