STARKE, Fla. — A Florida prisoner from Orange County executed for fatally stabbing his ex-wife, young daughter and two others 30 years ago gave no final statement.
Jerry Correll said "no sir" when asked if he had any final statement before his execution Thursday at Florida State Prison. Correll's upper body convulsed for about 10 seconds when the lethal injection was administered at 7:27 p.m., about an hour and a half past the scheduled time. He was pronounced dead nine minutes after the injection.
Last minute legal manuevers at the U.S. Supreme Court caused the delay, but the execution was not stayed.
Correll, 59, was found guilty and sentenced to death for killing his former wife, Susan Correll; their 5-year-old daughter, named Tuesday; Susan Correll's mother, Mary Lou Hines; and Susan Correll's sister, Marybeth Jones.
During his trial, Correll asked to be excused from the courtroom while photos of the stabbing scene were displayed for jurors. His request was denied.
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Channel 9 legal analyst Belvin Perry, who was a prosecutor in Orange County at the time of the slayings, said evidence was all throughout the house, including blood, fingerprints and hair.
Perry said Correll had cuts and bruises on his body when he was found.
"You just don't want to think about the pain and suffering that they had to endure," Perry said.
Correll is the 22nd inmate to be executed under Gov. Rick Scott, the most executions under a single governor since the death penalty was reinstated in Florida in 1979.
State Attorney Jeff Ashton released a statement which read, “Jerry Correll mercilessly and brutally killed four family members more than 30 years ago. The Hines family and our community have finally received the justice a jury and judge believed was deserved.”
Twenty-one inmates were executed during former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's two full terms.
Ninety people have been executed in Florida since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
While other states have phased out the practice, Florida trails Texas and Missouri in death sentences carried out in the last two years.
“That is not justice. That is vengeance,” said Deborah Sheare, of the diocese of Orlando.
Shearer opposes the death penalty and joined Florida’s Catholic bishops in calling for Correll’s sentence to be commuted from death to life without parole.
“We do not want the state acting in our name,” said Shearer.
Nationally, public opinion is shifting away from the death penalty.
Liberal groups point to the 26 Florida death row inmates exonerated since 1973, the most in the nation, while conservatives point to the cost.
The nonpartisan Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C. points out that legal fees mean the death penalty in Florida costs an average of $3 million more, per death row inmate, than life in prison.
“The conservatives are now saying that this is just another government program that is costly, ineffective and inefficient,” said Robert Dunham of the Death Penalty Information Center.
The number of executions in the U.S. has dropped every year since 2009.
In addition, the number of people sentenced to death has been falling since 2007.
Florida is one of seven states that put a person to death last year, and one of six states to use the death penalty this year.
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