Florida executes Michael Lambrix after Supreme Court rejects appeal

Florida executed an inmate convicted of double murder via lethal injection Thursday, after the state Supreme Court rejected his appeal to be spared because a jury did not unanimously recommend capital punishment in his case. Cary Michael Lambrix, 57, was convicted of murdering Aleisha Bryant and Clarence Moore in 1983 near LaBelle after they met at a bar, then continued the party at Lambrix’s home with a spaghetti dinner. Lambrix has maintained his innocence throughout the decades. WLRN reports that days before his execution in an interview with reporters, he insisted that the state of Florida was “going to be deliberately putting to death an innocent person.”

“It won’t be an execution,” Lambrix told WLRN. “It’s going to be an act of cold-blooded murder.”

The Associated Press reports Lambrix died at 10:10 p.m. at the Florida State Prison and his final moments were spent reciting the Lord’s Prayer. Lambrix wanted a Thanksgiving dinner for his final meal, consisting of turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, a dinner roll, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie and other desserts, according to WLRN.

The inmate’s attorneys had argued Lambrix should have been resentenced because a jury did not unanimously recommend that he receive the death penalty. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court found Florida’s death-penalty sentencing scheme was unconstitutional because it gave judges power over juries. The Florida Supreme Court ruled later that juries recommending death must agree unanimously. But the court also ruled that the new death sentencing rules only apply to cases as far back as 2002, making Lambrix’s case too old. Last week, Florida justices rejected Lambrix’s last-minute appeals in a 5-1 decision.

This article appears in Oct 4-10, 2017.