Florida Set to Resume Executions: 1st White to be Executed for Killing a Black Man
Posted August 24, 2017 08:55 am | Public News Service
TALLAHASSEE,
FL - For the first time in state history, Florida is
scheduled to execute a white man for killing a black
person.
Mark James Asay's death warrant schedules his execution for six o-clock this evening. Asay was convicted by a jury for two racially-motivated and premeditated murders in Jacksonville in 1987. Barring a stay, it will be Florida's first execution since the U.S. Supreme Court halted the practice in the state more than 18 months ago.
Death
penalty opponent Mark Elliott with
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
says the criminal justice system isn't fair.
"Ordering the execution of Mark Asay, who is a white person, that one of his victims was black doesn't change the history, doesn't change the reality of the death penalty and how it's applied, and who it's applied against," he explains.
Since Florida reinstated the death penalty in
1976, at least 20 black men charged with killing white
victims have been executed, according to data from the
Death Penalty Information Center.
Florida also plans to use for the first time a drug
called Etomidate and potassium acetate in its execution
cocktail. Elliott argues that life in prison is a better
alternative to a death sentence, considering the state's
track record.
"We've had 27 people released off of Florida's death row
due to wrongful convictions," he adds. "That's far more
than any other state - so, we make more mistakes than
any other state."
Asay would be the 24th person executed since Gov. Rick
Scott has taken office, the most under any governor in
Florida history.
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