Texas and Florida both carried out executions Thursday night, about an hour apart:
- In Florida, James Dennis Ford was put to death via lethal injection, USA Today reports. In 1997, Ford invited his co-worker Gregory Malnory and Malnory's wife, Kimberly, on a fishing trip to a sod farm. They brought their 23-month-old daughter along. Ford attacked Gregory Malnory and shot him in the back of the head; Kimberly Malnory got the toddler to safety in the back of the couple's truck, but Ford raped the woman and then fatally shot her. The couple was found dead, their daughter still there, covered in her mother's blood and dehydrated. Ford's final words were delivered via a written statement: "Hugs Prayers Love!!! God Bless everyone!!!!"
- In Texas, Richard Lee Tabler was also executed via lethal injection, USA Today reports. In 2004, he fatally shot Mohamed-Amine Rahmouni, a local strip club co-owner, and Rahmouni's friend Haitham Frank Zayed. Two days later, he fatally shot two teenage dancers at the club, though he was never tried for their murders because he was sentenced to death for the first two. "If you feel that this is what you need to get you closure, I pray it helps you have that closure," he said in a lengthy statement before his execution. "I just hope that one day you find that forgiveness to forgive me for taking your loved ones from you."
There have been five executions in the US so far this year, and five states have executions scheduled next month. (More
execution stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
