5 years ago
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By First Coast News Staff and the Associated Press
STARKE, FL -- Florida inmate Johnny L. Robinson was executed 7:34 Wednesday evening for his role in the death of Beverly St. George.
Johnny L. Robinson, 51, was condemned for the Aug. 12, 1985, slaying of Beverly St. George, whose car had broken down in St. Johns County.
He was scheduled to die by injection at 6 p.m. EST at Florida State Prison near Starke in northeastern Florida.
Just 15 minutes before the execution process was to begin, Gov. Jeb Bush's office got a call from the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it "to wait for further word," said Anne Conley, an assistant attorney general.
Robinson had eaten a final meal of fried chicken gizzards and hearts, smoked sausage, french fries, butter pecan ice cream and Dr. Pepper.
Robinson was convicted of slaying Beverly St. George, whose car had broken down in St. Johns County.
His attorney, Peter Cannon, had launched a multifaceted attack to try to save his client, but had been turned down by court after court.
On Wednesday, he sent a second appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court after being rejected by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta late Tuesday and again on Wednesday.
The request for the delay came several hours later.
Robinson has earlier lost appeals in the Circuit Court in St. Johns County, the Florida Supreme Court and federal court in Jacksonville.
His attorneys had argued that his death sentence was the result of racism in St. Johns County and that a co-defendant Clinton Fields recanted testimony about the shooting of St. George.
Fields, who has an IQ of 50 and is serving a life sentence for St. George's murder, now says he never saw Robinson fire the fatal shots, the attorneys say.
Robinson also challenged Florida's method of execution as cruel and unusual punishment.
The appeal challenged the use of the chemical, pancuronium bromide, the second of three chemicals used in the execution process.
Opponents of the drug's usage say it can cause prisoners to suffocate before they lose consciousness and is so cruel that some states have banned its use by veterinarians to euthanize animals.
A federal judge in Jacksonville turned down the drug appeal Tuesday afternoon, as did the 11th Circuit in Atlanta.
In Washington, Robinson also had an appeal pending with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it to stop his execution based on an Arizona case, known as the Ring decision.
In the Ring case, the high court ruled that the ultimate decision on the death penalty should rest with juries and not judges.
In Florida, juries make a sentencing recommendation to the judge, who can either follow or reject their recommendation.
Several Florida inmates have been unsuccessful when attempting to use the Ring decision to spare their lives.
St. George, 31, was driving to Quantico, Va., to attend a child custody hearing, when her car broke done on I-95.
She was abducted at gunpoint by Robinson and Fields.
She was handcuffed and taken to Pellicer Cemetery, where she was raped by both men, and shot twice in the head.
Robinson, however, who is black, said the woman agreed to go with them to the cemetery and he and St. George had consensual sex on the hood of his car.
He claimed that during the sexual activity, a struggle occurred and his .22-caliber pistol went off hitting her in the face.
Robinson said he shot her again because he did not think people would believe that the fatal shooting of a white woman was an accident.
Five days after St. George's murder, Robinson was arrested for robbing four other people in a disabled car and raping one of them.
Robinson was still on parole for a Maryland rape at the time.
The handgun used to kill St. George was stolen in a burglary the week before.
Robinson was sexually, physically and emotionally abused as a child.
He was forced by his grandfather to work in farm fields from the ages of 5 or 6, according to court records.
Unless he receives a last-minute stay, Robinson will be the first person executed this year in Florida, which has executed 55 men and two women since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
Paul Hill, 49, who died from lethal injection on Sept. 3, for the shooting deaths of an abortion doctor and his body guard, was the last person executed in Florida.
Since 1924, Florida has executed 253 state prison inmates and one federal prisoner.
First Coast News