The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday rejected arguments aimed at preventing the scheduled Nov. 20 execution of Richard Barry Randolph in the 1988 murder of a Putnam County convenience-store manager. Randolph, 63, could be a record 17th inmate executed this year in Florida.
The Supreme Court issued the opinion about two hours before Bryan Frederick Jennings, 66, was scheduled to be executed at Florida State Prison in the 1979 murder of a 6-year-old girl in Brevard County.
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Oct. 21 signed a death warrant for Randolph, who was convicted in the murder of Minnie Ruth McCollum, who was beaten, stabbed and raped at a Handy Way store in East Palatka.
Randolph’s attorneys raised a series of arguments in trying to halt the execution, including that using the state’s three-drug protocol for lethal injection could result in cruel and unusual punishment. That argument involved Randolph having lupus and the potential risks posed by the combination of the drugs and the condition. But the Supreme Court rejected the argument Thursday.
“Here, Randolph concedes that he was diagnosed with lupus in 1990 and has had the disease his entire life,” the opinion said. “Moreover, the current three-drug protocol has remained essentially unchanged since 2017. That being the case, the facts on which this claim is predicated have been available since at least 2017. Randolph’s current claim was raised eight years later and is thus untimely.”
The opinion was unanimous, though Justice Charles Canady was recused from the case. Attorneys typically file appeals at the U.S. Supreme Court if the Florida Supreme Court declines to halt executions. Florida’s previous modern-era record for executions in a year was eight in 1984 and 2014. The modern era represents the period since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, after a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court opinion halted it.
DeSantis also has signed a death warrant to execute Mark Allen Geralds Dec. 9 in the 1989 murder of a Bay County woman.
