Miami, May 10 (EFE).- The governor of Florida, Republican Ron DeSantis, signed the death sentence for Duane Owen, convicted of the murder of two women in 1984 and whose execution was scheduled for June 15, the which would constitute the fourth of the year in this southern state.
In a letter sent Tuesday to Warden Davis, director of the Florida Department of Corrections (Prisons), DeSantis communicates that he has signed this death sentence and attached the sentencing document from the State Attorney’s Office.
According to this document to which EFE had access, signed by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, Duane Eugene Owen was found guilty of first degree murder in February 1986 for the death of Georgianna Warden, which occurred in Palm Beach County on May 29, 1984.
“Owen was also convicted of sexual assault with a deadly weapon and robbery,” reads the document, according to which the defendant was sentenced to death for the murder of Warden on March 13, 1986 by a trial court, after the Jury ruling that recommended execution with 10 votes in favor and 2 against.
According to court documents, Owen broke into the 38-year-old’s home while she was sleeping and fatally struck her over the head with a hammer multiple times before raping her.
Prior to that event that occurred in Boca Raton, in March 1984 the sentenced man broke into a Delray Beach home and attacked 14-year-old Karen Slattery, who was caring for two small children. According to court documents, the man repeatedly stabbed her minor and then sexually assaulted her during an event in which the children were not injured.
The cities of Delray Beach and Boca Raton are in Palm Beach County, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Miami.
Owen’s execution, scheduled for 6 p.m. local time (10:00 p.m. GMT), on June 15, will be the fourth to be carried out in Florida this year, and also the fourth since 2019 (between 2020 and 2022 no there were none).
Previously, Donald Dillbeck was executed in February of this year; Louis Bernard Gaskin, in April; and Darryl B. Barwick, on May 3.
Owen’s, who will be executed by lethal injection, will also be the sixth signed by the current Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, which reflects a lower average than that of his predecessors, and number 103 since capital punishment was restored in 1976. This status.
According to data from the Florida Department of Corrections (Prisons), there are currently nearly 300 inmates on the state’s “death row,” as the place where those to be executed are known.
The oldest prisoner is Ecuadorian Nelson Serrano, 80, who was convicted of three murders that he still claims he did not commit and whose case is seen by human rights organizations as a judicial outrage.
DeSantis signed a measure passed in the state Congress last month that reduces the requirements for sentencing a person to the death penalty and eliminates the requirement of unanimity by jurors for this verdict.
