Executions since Hurst in 2016
Since Hurst, Florida has conducted nine executions. All 9 were sentenced under Florida’s prior unconstitutional statute and were final before Ring. Only 4 had unanimous jury recommendations.
As a follow-up to the five-part series on Hurst v. Florida, this post covers the executions that Florida has completed since Hurst. The Hurst series can be found on the Resources page.
REMINDER: The Florida Senate is set to hear the capital sex crime bill today, starting at 4:00 p.m.
Bolin Execution Days Before Hurst
The last execution before Hurst was Oscar Ray Bolin, Jr., on January 7, 2016—just days before the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Hurst v. Florida.
Bolin was convicted of murder and sentenced to death three times. He was not sentenced by a jury because he waived a jury sentencing. However, on direct appeal, he challenged the trial court’s acceptance of that waiver. This part of his case makes it interesting that he was set to be executed while Hurst was pending and considering the outcome of Hurst just days later.
Bolin’s case had some interesting facts that are worth mentioning. In late 2015, the Florida Supreme Court denied Bolin relief based on claims that an inmate in another state had confessed to the murder:
In his appeal, Bolin alleges that an Ohio inmate confessed to the murder for which he was convicted in this case. The circuit court granted an evidentiary hearing, but the inmate, Steven Kassler, committed suicide before the hearing took place. Thereafter, Bolin filed a motion for postconviction DNA testing requesting that evidence in his case be compared to the Kassler's DNA profile. The circuit court summarily denied Bolin's motion. Because Bolin has failed to establish any likelihood of a different result, we affirm the postconviction court's summary denial of relief.
Executions Resume after Hurst
Since Hurst, Florida has executed 9 people:
Mark Asay
Executed August 24, 2017
Governor: Rick Scott
The jury vote in Asay’s case for death was 9-3, and he was denied Hurst relief because his sentence was final before Ring.
Asay was the first person executed using etomidate as the first drug in the lethal injection protocol. The Florida Department of Corrections (DOC) had amended the Protocol on January 4, 2017, just after Hurst II. The trial court denied Asay’s claim challenging the DOC’s change to the protocol after an evidentiary hearing. However, he argued on appeal that he was not given access to all of the documents that would have supported his claim that the new protocol constituted cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. The Supreme Court of Florida affirmed the denial, and the execution proceeded.
Michael Lambrix
Executed October 5, 2017
Governor: Rick Scott
The jury votes in Lambrix’s case for death were 10-2 and 8-4, and he was denied Hurst relief because his sentence was final before Ring.
Lambrix’s execution had been scheduled before, including for February 11, 2016—a month after Hurst v. Florida. At that time, the execution was stayed by the Supreme Court of Florida pending its decision in Hurst II and the application of Hurst to Lambrix’s case.
Patrick Hannon
Executed November 8, 2017
Governor: Rick Scott
The jury votes in Hannon’s case for death were unanimous. Although his sentence became final before Ring, he would not have been entitled to Hurst relief due to the unanimous jury recommendations. However, Justice Pariente dissented from the denial of Hurst relief in his case and said that even though the jury’s recommendations were unanimous, she would “not rely on the jury’s unanimous recommendation for death to conclude the Hurst error is harmless beyond a reasonable doubt” because “Hannon's jury never heard the substantial mitigation that could have been presented if his counsel had performed a reasonable investigation.” She had previously joined Justice Anstead’s dissenting opinion in Hannon’s initial postconviction appeal in 2006, in which Justice Anstead argued “that Hannon was entitled to a new penalty phase due to counsel’s failure to properly investigate and present mitigation to the penalty phase jury.”
Eric Branch
Executed February 22, 2018
Governor: Rick Scott
Branch requested various public records related to the lethal injection protocol, but the requests were denied. He challenged the denials on appeal, but the Supreme Court of Florida found that the “circuit court did not abuse its discretion when it denied the[] requests.”
The jury vote in Branch’s case was 10-2, and he was denied Hurst relief because his sentence was final before Ring.
Jose A. Jimenez
Executed December 13, 2018
Governor: Rick Scott
Like Branch, Jimenez requested various public records related to the lethal injection protocol, but the requests were denied. He challenged the denials on appeal, but the Supreme Court of Florida found that no abuse of discretion in the denials. Also, like Asay, Jimenez challenged the use of etomidate in the lethal injection protocol. That claim was denied.
The jury unanimously recommended death in Jimenez’s case. His sentence became final before Ring. Although his sentence became final before Ring, he would not have been entitled to Hurst relief due to the unanimous jury recommendation.
Robert J. Long
Executed May 23, 2019
Governor: Ron DeSantis
Like Asay and Jimenez, Long challenged the use of etomidate in the lethal injection protocol, arguing that “his traumatic brain injury and temporal lobe epilepsy render the use of etomidate in his execution unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment.” After an evidentiary hearing, the circuit court denied the claim. The Supreme Court of Florida affirmed the denial.
The jury unanimously recommended death in Long’s case. His sentence became final before Ring. Although his sentence became final before Ring, he would not have been entitled to Hurst relief due to the unanimous jury recommendation.
Gary R. Bowles
Executed August 22, 2019
Governor: Ron DeSantis
Bowles also attempted to obtain public records and to challenge the lethal injection protocol but was unsuccessful.
The jury’s recommendation for death in Bowels’ case was unanimous. His sentence of death became final one week before Ring. Although his sentence became final before Ring, he would not have been entitled to Hurst relief due to the unanimous jury recommendation.
Donald D. Dillbeck
Executed February 23, 2023
Governor: Ron DeSantis
The jury vote in Dillbeck’s case was 8-4, and he was denied Hurst relief because his sentence was final before Ring.
Louis Gaskin
Of the nine people executed since Hurst, all nine had sentences of death that were imposed under Florida’s prior unconstitutional sentencing statute and became final before Ring and, therefore, weren’t entitled to retroactive application of Hurst.
Of the nine, four were sentenced to death after the jury unanimously recommended death. Therefore, over half were sentenced to death by nonunanimous juries. In other words, five of the nine—Asay, Lambrix, Branch, Dillbeck, and Gaskin—would have been entitled to relief absent the Florida Supreme Court’s retroactivity decision in Asay.
Darryl Barwick is set to be executed on May 3, 2023. If completed, his will be the tenth since Hurst.