TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed a death warrant for inmate Edward James, who was sentenced to death for the murder of a woman in 1993 and her 8-year-old Seminole County granddaughter.
The death warrant comes five days after the state died of James Ford in the 1997 murder of a Charlotte County couple.
James’ execution is scheduled for March 20th at the Florida State Jail, according to documents posted on the Florida Supreme Court website.
James, now 63, has been convicted of murdering Betty Dick and her granddaughter Toni Neuner. He rented a room from Dick and committed murder after drinking overnight.
Court documents say James went home to strangle the child and sexually assaulted him. He then went to Dick’s bedroom where he was planning to have sex with her. He stabbed her to death, the document said.
James was sentenced to death for murder in 1995 and was sentenced to prison for other changes as well. State and federal courts declined a series of appeals in the following years.
In a letter to DeSantis on Tuesday, Attorney General DeSantis, posted on the Supreme Court website, which includes the death warrant, said on the basis of previous lawsuits that “death sentence and sentence imposed for first-degree murder.” I support the “I support the.” To support the issuance of death warrants. ”
The death warrant could touch on a new appeal in the coming weeks.
When Ford was first executed in Florida this year, he was killed Thursday in the murders of Greg and Kimberly Marnolly at Sodd Farm in Charlotte County.
Florida executed one prisoner in 2024. Loran Cole was executed on August 29th for the murder of John Edwards, who was camping in the Ocala National Forest of Florida State University student John Edwards in 1994.
Florida did not execute prisoners in 2020, 2021 or 2022, but in 2023 they killed six men.
They were Michael Duane Zach, who was executed for a 1996 murder in Escambia County. James Phillip Burns was executed in a condo in Melbourne for the murder of a woman in 1988. Duane Owen was executed for the 1984 murder of a woman in Palm Beach County. Daryl Berwick was executed for the murder of a woman in 1986 in an apartment in Panama City. Louis Gaskin was executed for the 1989 murder of a Flagler County couple. Donald David Dilbeck was executed for the murder of a woman in 1990 while carjacking in a parking lot at Tallahassee Mall.
