In a first since 2019, a convicted killer, who slit the throat of a woman as he escaped from prison has been executed by lethal injection in Florida, a report said.
According to Daily Mirror, a jury recommended 8-4 that he be executed. The state Supreme Court earlier this month denied appeals claiming that he shouldn't be put to death because he suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome and it's cruel and unusual to keep him on death row for more than 30 years before his death warrant was signed. The US Supreme Court denied his appeals Wednesday afternoon.
Dillbeck's execution is Florida's first in nearly four years and the third under Republican Gov Ron DeSantis. By comparison, his immediate predecessor, current US Republican Sen Rick Scott, oversaw 28 executions.
The death row inmate went about his normal routine Thursday morning before meeting with a spiritual advisor. He ate his last meal, which was fried shrimp, onion rings, mushrooms, butter pecan ice cream, pecan pie and a chocolate bar. None of his relatives came to visit him, the Daily Mirror report said.
Death Penalty Information Center, a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., that focuses on disseminating studies and reports related to the death penalty, lately noted that Dillbeck’s lawyers have pointed to testing that “indicated widespread and profound neurological damage throughout Dillbeck’s brain, with particular abnormality in the portions of the brain most responsible for regulating planning, mood, judgment, behavior, impulse control and intentionality.”
His execution would be the first in Florida since 2019 and comes when the governor is seeking legislative changes to make it easier to obtain death sentences. Dillbeck has also claimed that the length of time he spent on death row (30 years) amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. Nationally, the time between sentencing and execution has tripled in the past 35 years, the organisation said on its website.