Miami (AFP) – A Florida man who has spent nearly 50 years on Death Row is to be executed by lethal injection on Thursday for the murder of a 13-year-old girl. James Hitchcock, 70, was convicted of the 1976 murder of Cynthia Driggers, his step-niece, and sentenced to death in 1977. Hitchcock, who maintains his innocence, is to be executed at 6:00 pm (2200 GMT) at the Florida state prison in Raiford.
Hitchcock’s nearly five decades on Death Row make him among the inmates who have spent the most time in prison awaiting execution in the United States. Another execution is also scheduled to be carried out on Thursday. James Broadnax, 37, is to be put to death by lethal injection in Texas for the 2008 robbery and murder of two music producers.
Eight executions have been carried out in the United States this year — five in Florida, two in Texas, and one in Oklahoma. There were 47 executions in the United States last year, the most since 2009, when 52 people were put to death. Florida carried out the most executions in 2025, with 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.” The Trump Justice Department said earlier this month that it is seeking to expand the use of the death penalty in federal capital cases and add the firing squad, electrocution, and gas to lethal injection as methods of execution.
© 2024 AFP
