Florida set to execute man convicted of raping and killing a lady 3 a long time in the past
A person convicted of raping and killing a lady three a long time in the past after kidnapping her from a grocery store parking zone in Florida is scheduled to be executed Tuesday.
Anthony Wainwright, 54, is scheduled to obtain a deadly injection at Florida State Jail close to Starke. He was convicted within the April 1994 killing of 23-year-old Carmen Gayheart, a mom of two younger youngsters, in Lake Metropolis.
Wainwright could be the sixth individual put to dying in Florida this yr. The state additionally executed six folks in 2023, however solely carried out one execution final yr. There are 4 executions scheduled across the nation this week, together with one other one on Tuesday in Alabama. On Monday, an Oklahoma decide granted a brief keep of execution for a person scheduled to be put to dying Thursday.
Richard Hamilton, the opposite man convicted in Gayheart’s killing, was additionally sentenced to dying. However he died on dying row in January 2023 on the age of 59.
Gayheart’s sister, who plans to attend the execution, mentioned three a long time is simply too lengthy to attend for justice.
“It’s ridiculous what number of appeals they get,” Maria David instructed The Related Press, including that every step of the appeals course of reopened her household’s wounds. “It’s important to relive it once more as a result of they’ve to inform the entire story once more.”
Wainwright and Hamilton escaped from jail in North Carolina, stole a inexperienced Cadillac and burglarized a house the following morning, taking weapons and cash. Then they drove to Florida and when the Cadillac started to have issues in Lake Metropolis, they determined to steal one other car.
They confronted Gayheart, a neighborhood school pupil, on April 27, 1994, as she loaded groceries into her blue Ford Bronco, in accordance with courtroom paperwork. They pressured her into the car at gunpoint and drove off. They raped her within the backseat after which took her out of the car and tried to strangle her earlier than taking pictures her twice behind the top, courtroom filings say. They dragged her physique a number of dozen yards from the highway and drove off.
The 2 males have been arrested in Mississippi the following day after a shootout with police.
A jury in 1995 convicted Wainwright of homicide, kidnapping, theft and rape and unanimously advisable that he be sentenced to dying.
Wainwright’s attorneys have filed a number of unsuccessful appeals over time based mostly on what they mentioned have been issues together with his trial and proof that he suffered from mind injury and mental incapacity.
Since his execution was scheduled, his attorneys have argued in state and federal courtroom filings that his execution needs to be placed on maintain to permit time for courts to listen to extra authorized arguments in his case.
In a submitting with the U.S. Supreme Courtroom, his attorneys argue that his case has been “marred by essential, systemic failures at nearly each stage and thru the signing of his dying warrant.” These failures embrace flawed DNA proof that wasn’t disclosed to the protection till after opening statements, faulty jury directions, inflammatory and inaccurate closing arguments and missteps by court-appointed attorneys, the submitting says.
The submitting additionally says {that a} jailhouse informant who testified at Wainwright’s trial lastly admitted final month that he and one other informant had testified in trade for lighter sentences, a indisputable fact that had not been disclosed to the protection.
The Supreme Courtroom on Monday denied Wainwright’s closing appeals with out remark.
David, Gayheart’s sister, mentioned she feels cheated that Hamilton died earlier than the state may execute him.
She mentioned she was “overcome with emotion” when she heard the governor had signed a dying warrant for Wainwright. Her dad and mom each died whereas ready for justice to be served, she mentioned, however she plans to be there to witness the ultimate chapter of her household’s tragedy.
“There’s nothing that will maintain me from seeing this during,” she mentioned.
Her sister liked animals and shocked her by coaching to grow to be a nurse relatively than a veterinarian, David mentioned. Gayheart was two years youthful than her sister however turned a mom first, and David mentioned she marveled at her sister’s persistence together with her younger youngsters.
“She was right here, she mattered, she needs to be remembered, and she or he was liked,” David mentioned of her sister.
Through the years, she has saved a guide the place she put each courtroom submitting, from the preliminary indictment by means of the most recent appeals.
“I’m wanting ahead to getting the final items of paperwork that say he’s been executed to place into the guide and by no means having to consider Anthony Wainwright ever once more,” she mentioned.