Florida executes inmate for 1997 double homicide in entrance of toddler, whereas Texas places to dying nightclub killer | EUROtoday

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The state of Florida has executed James Dennis Ford, 64, for the 1997 murders of Gregory and Kimberly Malnory, who have been brutally slain on a fishing journey in entrance of their younger daughter, the primary of two executions that occurred on Thursday.

Ford was pronounced lifeless at 6:19pm ET, after being given deadly injection medication on the Florida State Prison in Raiford.

Maranda Malnory was 23 months previous when, in line with prosecutors, Ford shot Gregory Malnory within the head with a .22-caliber rifle, bludgeoned him, and slit his throat, then raped, beat, and shot Kimberly Malnory.

The couple’s daughter, Maranda Malnory, was left behind as Ford fled the scene, and located practically a day later dehydrated and coated in insect bites by an worker of a close-by sod farm.

Malnory, now an grownup, mentioned she has little recollection of the killings, however grieves her mother and father nonetheless.

“I told one of my grandmas the other day you grieve the people you knew,” she advised Gulf Coast News Now forward of the execution. “But I grieve what could have been.”

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Malnory was 13 when she discovered the total fact of what occurred to her mother and father.

“I would want to know why,” she added in her interview with Gulf Coast News Now. “Just because nobody has been able to pinpoint that. But, to be honest, I don’t really care anymore.”

Both the U.S. Supreme Court and Florida Supreme Court rejected current appeals from Ford forward of the execution.

His attorneys had argued that whereas Ford was 36 on the time of the murders, he had a psychological age of 14, and diabetes-related signs that precipitated him to black out and act erratically.

State officers mentioned that on his final day, Ford awakened at 3:30am, obtained three household guests, and later consumed a closing meal of steak, macaroni and cheese, fried okra, candy potato, pumpkin pie, and candy tea.

He reportedly didn’t supply any closing public statements.

Ford was the primary execution within the state this yr, and the fourth nationwide.

Later Thursday, Texas executed Richard Lee Tabler, who officers say killed 4 folks within the metropolis of Killeen in 2004.

He was pronounced lifeless at 6:39pm CST, The Associated Press experiences.

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Tabler, who was born in California, turned a teen runaway and later engaged in a lifetime of crime that included stealing vehicles, working and utilizing medication, and serving previous jail time.

In November of 2004, he killed Mohamed-Amine Rahmouni, the co-owner of an area night time membership the place he as soon as labored, and his good friend, Haitham Frank Zayed, after the membership proprietor allegedly threatened Tabler’s family members.

The killing occurred when Tabler and an confederate lured the pair to a gathering underneath the premise of shopping for stolen stereo tools.

Two days later, Tabler allegedly killed two teen dancers on the membership, Tiffany Loraine Dotson and Amanda Benefield, once they started asking questions in regards to the murders.

Police mentioned Tabler as soon as referred to as the Bell County Sheriff’s Department to brag in regards to the killings. He was indicted however by no means convicted of the second two deaths, and he later denied accountability.

In jail, Tabler skilled bouts of despair, self-harm, and later discovered faith and commenced main a dying row ministry.

He additionally made headlines in 2008 and 2012 for utilizing letters and a contraband cellular phone to ship messages to then-state Senator John Whitmire, the present mayor of Houston, who described the missives as dying threats, whereas Tabler has mentioned they have been makes an attempt to speak about poor circumstances behind bars.

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The incident prompted a statewide lockdown of the jail system to seek for contraband.

Over the course of his imprisonment, Tabler tried at numerous factors to hasten and cease his execution. He was the topic of a 2008 listening to the place he was finally deemed mentally competent, and a 2024 American Civil Liberties Union enchantment that in 2008, his counsel withheld a report that identified him as severely mentally sick.

Tabler wrote in a press release to USA Today forward of his execution that he regretted the killings.

“I take full responsibility for my actions of 20 years ago, and sadly, I can’t go back in time and just walk away,” he wrote.

“A lot of people cannot understand how I can have such peace and joy in my heart in the face of my own death, but I know it’s the strength, grace and mercy of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who has been with me every step of the way,” he added. “The day of my execution is the beginning of my real life.”

In addition to states with busy dying rows like Texas and Florida, the Trump administration is anticipated to revive federal executions, which have been paused in the course of the Biden administration amid considerations over wrongful convictions and different rights points.

He’s additionally pushed to produce states with deadly injection medication, given the difficulties jurisdictions have in acquiring dependable provides of such chemical compounds, which many pharmaceutical firms refuse to offer for executions.