Miami (AFP) – A man sentenced to death nearly 40 years ago for the murder of a grocery store owner is to be executed by lethal injection in Florida on Tuesday. Melvin Trotter, 65, was convicted of the 1986 murder of Virgie Langford, 70, during a robbery of her store in Palmetto, Florida. Trotter is scheduled to be executed at 6:00 pm (2300 GMT) at the Florida state prison in Raiford.
There have been three previous executions in the United States this year, one in Florida, one in Oklahoma, and one in Texas. There were 47 executions in the United States last year, the most since 2009, when 52 inmates were put to death. Florida carried out the most executions in 2025 — 19 — followed by Alabama, South Carolina, and Texas, where there were five each. Thirty-nine of last year’s executions were carried out by lethal injection.
Three were by firing squad and five by nitrogen hypoxia, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a face mask, causing the prisoner to suffocate. The use of nitrogen gas as a method of capital punishment has been denounced by United Nations experts as cruel and inhumane. The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others — California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place. President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and has called for an expansion of its use “for the vilest crimes.”
© 2024 AFP
