The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected an appeal by Curtis Windom, setting the stage for him to be executed Thursday evening at Florida State Prison for the 1992 murders of three people in Orange County.
The court, as is common, did not explain the decision.
Windom, 59, is slated to be the 11th Florida inmate put to death by lethal injection this year, a modern-era record for a year. Windom’s attorneys went to the U.S. Supreme Court after the Florida Supreme Court last week rejected his arguments.
Windom went on a shooting spree
Gov. Ron DeSantis on July 29 signed a death warrant for Windom, who was convicted of killing Johnnie Lee, Valerie Davis and Mary Lubin on Feb. 7, 1992.
Court documents said Windom claimed that Lee owed him $2,000. After finding out that Lee had won $114 at a greyhound track, Windom bought a .38-caliber revolver and ammunition and shot Lee.
Windom then went to the apartment of Davis, his girlfriend, and fatally shot her, according to the court documents. Lubin, who was Davis’ mother, left work and drove down a street after finding out her daughter had been shot. Windom shot Lubin when she stopped at a stop sign.
Windom’s lawyers have filed numerous appeals
In trying to prevent the execution, Windom’s attorneys argued primarily that he received incompetent legal representation during his 1992 trial.
In documents filed at the U.S. Supreme Court, they wrote that Windom’s right to counsel under the U.S. Constitution’s Sixth Amendment was violated because his trial lawyer was not qualified and that his convictions should be overturned.
“At the time that trial counsel represented Mr. Windom, there were no special qualifications imposed for capital attorneys,” a document filed Friday said. “The trial record indicates counsel was clearly not acting as the Sixth Amendment envisioned, especially in capital cases. Trial counsel lacked the basic understanding and knowledge of how to investigate complicated mental health investigations or how to present such defenses at a trial and penalty phase in a capital trial. Under the evolved standards today, the rules in place now would have prevented this injustice.”
But the state Attorney General’s Office urged the U.S. Supreme Court to deny the appeal and pointed to other courts, including the Florida Supreme Court, that rejected Windom’s arguments. The state said in one document that while Windom’s attorneys contended “his trial counsel was unqualified to handle a capital case, the fact is that his ineffective assistance claim was denied by both state courts and the federal district and appellate courts.”
Florida on track for record number of executions
DeSantis has signed a steady stream of death warrants this year, with a 12th execution scheduled Sept. 17. That case involves David Pittman, 63, who was convicted of killing three members of his estranged wife’s family in 1990 in Polk County.
The previous record for executions in the modern era was eight in 1984 and 2014. The modern era represents the time since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, after a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court Ruling halted it.
Inmates who have been executed this year were Kayle Bates on Aug. 19; Edward Zakrzewski on July 31; Michael Bell on July 15; Thomas Gudinas on June 24; Anthony Wainwright on June 10; Glen Rogers on May 15; Jeffrey Hutchinson on May 1; Michael Tanzi on April 8; Edward James on March 20; and James Ford on Feb. 13.
