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Sometime round dinner on September 30, Victor Tony Jones will turn out to be Mr. Unlucky 13.
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On that date, the 64-year-old will stroll into the execution chamber on the Florida State Prison in tiny Starke, about midway between Gainesville and Jacksonville, the place he can be strapped to a gurney.
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Next up, a poisonous cocktail, then oblivion.
So far in 2025, Florida has executed a dozen condemned males, greater than in some other 12 months for the reason that final punishment was reinstated nearly 50 years in the past.
“Gov. Ron DeSantis likes Florida to be No. 1 – and on the subject of executions, we’re main the nation this 12 months,” Florida political observer Gregg Birnbaum instructed the Toronto Sun.
“We simply had our twelfth this week, and there are two extra scheduled this 12 months. Maybe it shouldn’t come as a shock in a state the place the electrical chair was as soon as referred to as ‘Old Sparky.’ The nickname might have been apt contemplating the botched 1990 execution during which flames burst from the condemned man’s head. The electrical chair isn’t used right here anymore — it’s deadly injection.”
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In current years, 2014 had probably the most executions in Florida, with eight. This 12 months, the state has executed thrice as many individuals as its closest rivals, South Carolina and the loss of life penalty Bethlehem of Texas.
Thirty condemned killers have been iced to this point this 12 months within the U.S. In 2024, 25 executions have been carried out. Birnbaum — a journalism professor on the University of Florida and Florida International University in Miami — stated there was nearly zero pushback on the executions.
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“The uptick in executions right here is going on with minimal controversy, and it appears to me little public curiosity,” he stated. “There are occasional blips of opposition, together with from Catholic leaders, but it surely’s all turn out to be routine. The governor strongly helps the loss of life penalty and even broadened it to incorporate some intercourse crimes in opposition to youngsters.”
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Jones, now on deck, was sentenced to loss of life in 1993 on two counts of first-degree homicide. In addition, he was additionally convicted of two counts of armed theft.
According to cops, Jones was a brand new rent at a Miami enterprise owned by Matilda and Jacob Nestor in December 1990 when he stabbed the couple to loss of life. But earlier than he died from his wounds, Jacob Nestor managed to retreat to an workplace.
He pulled a .22-calibre pistol from a holster and fired 5 instances, putting Jones as soon as within the brow.
Police discovered Jones wounded on the scene with the Nestors’ cash and private property in his pockets.
Jones’ scheduled execution comes scorching on the heels of triple killer David Pittman’s date with loss of life. Pittman, 63, caught the Night Train to Nowheresville on Tuesday.
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He was executed for stabbing to loss of life his estranged spouse’s sister and fogeys in 1990 after which setting their dwelling ablaze. His attorneys claimed the killer was intellectually impaired.
According to state officers, Pittman’s remaining phrases have been thus: “I do know you all got here to observe an harmless man be murdered by the state of Florida. I’m harmless. I didn’t kill anyone. That’s it.”
Following Jones on the gurney is Samuel Lee Smithers with a loss of life date of October 14.
The 72-year-old convicted killer was sentenced to die for the horrific dismemberment murders of two ladies in Plant City in 1996. Court information reveal that Smithers met Christy Cowan and Denise Roach on completely different dates at a Tampa scorching sheet motel.
Smithers had met the 2 ladies to pay them for intercourse.
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According to ABC News, Smithers was landscaping on a 27-acre property that included three ponds in rural Plant City. Owner Marion Whitehurst (who met Smithers at a Baptist church the place he was a deacon) found him cleansing an axe in May 1996.
She noticed a pool of blood, and Smithers instructed her somebody will need to have “killed a small animal.” Whitehurst referred to as the cops, and a deputy seen drag marks resulting in a pond.
There, they discovered the severely battered stays of the 2 ladies. He confessed and was sentenced in 1999 to die.
Birnbaum stated that the rejuvenated loss of life penalty is one other instance that Florida is now not a swing state and is “getting redder with every election.”
@HunterTOSun
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