STARKE, Fla. – The U.S. Supreme Court docket has rejected last-ditch appeals aimed toward sparing convicted killer Anthony Wainwright, setting the stage for his execution Tuesday night at Florida State Jail.
The Supreme Court docket issued two orders on Monday, turning down petitions filed by Wainwright’s attorneys. As is frequent, the courtroom didn’t clarify its choices, which adopted a ruling final week by the Florida Supreme Court docket that refused to halt the execution.
Wainwright, 54, is scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. Tuesday within the 1994 homicide of Carmen Gayheart, who was kidnapped as she loaded groceries into her Ford Bronco in a Lake Metropolis grocery store parking zone.
The backstory:
Wainwright and co-defendant Richard Hamilton had escaped from a North Carolina jail days earlier than the homicide. Hamilton pressured Gayheart, 23, into the Bronco at gunpoint and drove away, with Wainwright following in a Cadillac that the lads had stolen in North Carolina, in accordance with courtroom paperwork. They subsequently ditched the Cadillac and headed north on Interstate 75 earlier than pulling off right into a wooded space in Hamilton County, the place Gayheart was raped and killed.
The lads had been tried along with separate juries in Clay County, after juries couldn’t be seated in Hamilton County. Hamilton died in jail.
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If Wainwright’s execution is carried out, he can be the sixth inmate put to demise by deadly injection this 12 months in Florida. Additionally, Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a demise warrant for Thomas Gudinas, who’s scheduled to be executed June 24 within the 1994 rape and homicide of a lady in downtown Orlando.
Anthony Wainwright mugshot courtesy of the Florida Division of Corrections.
Dig deeper:
In attempting to get the U.S. Supreme Court docket to halt the execution, Wainwright’s attorneys argued, partly, that publicity to Agent Orange earlier than beginning brought on long-lasting cognitive and behavioral issues that have to be thought-about. That problem stemmed from Wainwright being conceived about six months after his father returned from serving within the Vietnam Conflict and being uncovered to the herbicide.
A petition filed on the Supreme Court docket stated little analysis had been finished on the time Wainwright acquired his demise sentence about transmission of Agent Orange to youngsters and that, if thought-about, the difficulty could possibly be a “mitigating” issue that will stop the execution.
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“Right here, Mr. Wainwright’s circumstances exemplify the appropriateness of a recognition that the last word penalty — that reserved for less than essentially the most culpable offenders — can be disproportionate, extreme, and merciless as utilized to his particular person circumstances. … Though Mr. Wainwright didn’t serve within the Vietnam Conflict and was not even a viable life at that time, he was catastrophically and immutably cognitively broken from it,” the petition stated. “Not like veterans, who make understanding sacrifices for our nation within the face of grave dangers, Mr. Wainwright had no such alternative.”
However the Florida Supreme Court docket had already rejected arguments about Agent Orange publicity, saying such proof, if allowed, wouldn’t end in Wainwright receiving a life sentence as an alternative of a demise sentence.
What they’re saying:
“First, whereas Wainwright says he was unaware of the reason for his cognitive and neurobehavioral impairments, his mental, behavioral, and psychological points have been a difficulty all through the post-conviction proceedings,” the Florida Supreme Court docket opinion stated, referring to earlier appeals after Wainwright was convicted within the homicide. “Thus, it’s unlikely that one extra trigger to clarify this set of behaviors would end in a life sentence.”
The Supply: This story was written with data gathered by the Information Service of Florida.
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