FEATURED POST

Biden Fails a Death Penalty Abolitionist’s Most Important Test

Image
The mystery of Joe Biden’s views about capital punishment has finally been solved. His decision to grant clemency to 37 of the 40 people on federal death row shows the depth of his opposition to the death penalty. And his decision to leave three of America’s most notorious killers to be executed by a future administration shows the limits of his abolitionist commitment. The three men excluded from Biden’s mass clemency—Dylann Roof, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Robert Bowers—would no doubt pose a severe test of anyone’s resolve to end the death penalty. Biden failed that test.

Florida executes Robert Hendrix

Robert Hendrix
STARKE, Florida — Florida executed a man by lethal injection at 6:21 p.m. Wednesday at Florida State Prison in Starke. Robert Hendrix declined to make a final statement before the lethal drugs were administered.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied Hendrix's last-minute request for a stay without comment. He ate a last meal of pork chops, sausage gravy and biscuits, German chocolate cake and a soft drink, state corrections officials said.

Robert Hendrix was convicted of the 1990 murders of Elmer and Michelle Scott at their Lake County home.

Prosecutors said Hendrix killed the couple because Elmer Scott intended to testify against him. But Hendrix's attorney said there was no forensic evidence linking his client to the murders and that the witnesses against him were unreliable.

Hendrix becomes the fourth person executed in Florida this year and the 16th since Gov. Rick Scott took office in 2011.

Evidence in the case showed Hendrix shot Scott in the face in his trailer home, hit him in the head with the gun and stabbed him in the neck the night before Hendrix's trial in the armed burglary case was to begin in August 1990. Hendrix then used a knife to cut the throat of Scott's wife, Michelle, who fought back before Hendrix shot her three times, they added.

Scott had already made a plea deal with prosecutors in the armed burglary case in which he and Hendrix broke into a house but only Scott was caught. His cooperation led investigators to arrest Hendrix. In the weeks leading up to his trial, prosecutors say, Hendrix told friends he would kill Scott rather than return to prison

Hendrix attorney Harry Brody said the presiding judge had a conflict of interest, Hendrix's trial lawyer was ineffective at presenting mitigating circumstances during sentencing and that Hendrix was shackled during his trial, leading jurors to a biased impression that he was dangerous.

During sentencing, Hendrix's attorneys failed to call witnesses who could have testified that Hendrix was regularly beaten by his father and had a serious drug addiction, factors that could explain his unbalanced mental state, according to court papers filed by Hendrix.

Hendrix becomes the 5th condemned inmate executed by Florida this year and the 16th since Gov. Rick Scott took office in 2011, and the 86th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1979.

Hendrix becomes the 19th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1378th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

Sources: The Republic, Agencies, Rick Halperin, April 23, 2014

Most Viewed (Last 7 Days)

Iran: 27 executions in three days

Biden Fails a Death Penalty Abolitionist’s Most Important Test

Vietnam court sentences 27 to death for smuggling over 600 kg of narcotics

North Carolina governor commutes death sentences of 15 inmates

China | Man sentenced to death for ramming car into crowd, killing 35

France officially asks Indonesia to transfer Serge Atlaoui

Saudi Arabia executed 330 people this year, highest number in decades

Iran executed at least 883 people in 2024

Zimbabwe abolishes Death Penalty, prisoners on death row to be resentenced

US carries out 25 executions this year as death penalty trends in nation held steady