Florida executes Robert L. Henry

Robert L. Henry

STARKE, Fla. (AP) -- Florida executed a man who killed 2 women by beating them with a hammer, setting them on fire.

Authorities say 55-year-old Robert L. Henry was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. following a lethal injection Thursday at the Florida State Prison.

Henry was convicted of the murders of 53-year-old Phyllis Harris and 35-year-old Janet Thermidor at a Deerfield Beach fabric store in November 1987. Thermidor lived long enough to identify Henry for police.

Henry left them for dead, but Thermidor was still alive when authorities found her beaten and burned. She identified Henry as the attacker in a recorded statement before she died from her injuries. Henry later confessed after first claiming someone else committed the crime.

"You talk about atrocious, heinous, cruel, vile or wicked. He literally burned them up," Broward County prosecutor Michael Satz told the jury that convicted Henry in 1988. "This is a case that nightmares are made of."

Henry ate a last meal Thursday that included red beans and rice, pecan pie, ice cream and orange juice, a prison official said. He was visited a day earlier by his mother, sister, an aunt and a niece.

According to trial testimony and his own statements to police, Henry first approached Harris after the store had closed on Nov. 2, 1987, telling her unknown robbers had ordered him to tie her up and blindfold her. Henry took Harris to a restroom, tied her to a urinal, then went to the store's office where he hit Thermidor repeatedly on the head with hammer, doused her with a flammable liquid and set her on fire.

Henry then went back to the restroom and attacked Harris with the hammer, setting her ablaze as well.

Authorities responding to the fire found Harris dead but Thermidor still alive, after she had tried to douse the flames in a second restroom. She lived about 12 hours, and her statement pointed to Henry. He was arrested the next day.

"I don't know why he had to do that to me. He didn't have to do that to me," Thermidor said on the tape, which was played in court during Henry's trial.

Court records show that Henry initially claimed the robbery was committed by three masked intruders who also abducted him, but later he confessed to acting alone. That confession was also recorded.

He was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder, armed robbery and arson, largely on the strength of Thermidor's deathbed statement.

Henry becomes the 4th inmate to be put to death this year in Florida, the 85th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1979, the 12th to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1371st overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

Sources: AP, Rick Halperin, March 20, 2014

Broward killer apologizes, then speaks against death penalty before execution

STARKE — — Broward killer Robert Lavern Henry, who viciously beat and burned his co-workers in order to steal $1,269.26, was put to death by lethal injection Thursday at Florida State Prison.

Janet Cox Thermidor, 35, and Phyllis Harris, 53, lost their lives in the sadistic crime more than 26 years ago.

Minutes before he died, Henry apologized, then philosophized against the death penalty.

"Hopefully, in the not-so-distant future, this society shall truly evolve in its law and practice, in that if we are not a society who are comfortable with castrating and raping a rapist, and we do not chop off the hands of thieves,'' he read from a statement, "well then, why would we continue to be murderers to those who have murdered?''

He went on as the family members of those he killed sat feet away, watching through a wide window.

"Many would argue that is the law, and my counter would be, so too was slavery.''

Thermidor's brother, Sal Cox, had heard enough.

"Die,'' he said from the front row.

Henry said that if his death would make the devastated family members and friends of his victims "heal or feel better because it is the law, I do not begrudge you your closure.''

He said he was "sincerely" sorry to "the innocent women of my crime,'' their friends and family, and his own friends and family.

"I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, and "I willingly forfeit this life for a better life that He offers us all,'' he said.

Henry blinked repeatedly and appeared to be talking or praying as the injections began at 6:05 p.m. His lips slowly stopped moving, but he continued breathing for several minutes. He was declared dead at 6:16 p.m.

He'd spent the day "calm and in good spirits,'" according to Assistant Warden Jeffrey McClellan.

He spent six hours Wednesday with family: a sister, an aunt, a niece and his mother. On Thursday he met for two hours with what McClellan called a "mitigation specialist" from his legal team.

Source: Sun Sentinel, March 20, 2014

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