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Florida Executes Richard Randolph, Setting New Annual Record for Executions
STARKE, FL – Florida carried out its 17th execution of the year on Thursday, November 20, a new annual record for the Sunshine State. Richard B.
Randolph, 63, was executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison for the 1988 rape and murder of a convenience store clerk. He was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m.
EST.
Randolph’s execution surpasses the previous record of eight executions in a single year, set in 2014. This marks the seventh military veteran executed in Florida this year.
Randolph was convicted in 1989 and sentenced to death by an 8-4 jury verdict for the murder of 62-year-old Minnie Ruth McCollum in Palatka, Florida. According to court documents, Randolph, a former employee of the Handy-Way convenience store, broke in on August 15, 1988, to rob it.
When McCollum confronted him, he repeatedly assaulted her, ultimately strangling and stabbing her before raping her. McCollum succumbed to her injuries six days later.
Randolph confessed to the crime after being arrested in Jacksonville.
His final appeal to the Supreme Court, which argued that he was “horribly abused” by his adoptive parents and received ineffective legal counsel at trial, was rejected without explanation on Thursday. His lawyers contended that his original counsel, who served as a special deputy in three Florida counties, only called one witness during the penalty phase of the trial.
Earlier challenges before the Florida Supreme Court raised concerns about Randolph’s health, stating that his lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease, would cause “severe pain” from the lethal injection, and that he would “essentially drown in his own blood.” The state’s high court dismissed this argument, citing the untimeliness of the claim given that Florida’s lethal injection protocol has largely remained unchanged since 2017.
The execution was met with protest. A candlelight vigil was held as Randolph was put to death. Advocacy groups like the Catholic Mobilizing Network and Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty voiced their opposition, highlighting Randolph’s alleged childhood abuse, ineffective counsel, and his reported spiritual transformation during his more than three decades on death row.
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty stated, “Tonight’s execution shows, with painful clarity, that the State of Florida does not believe in redemption. Or hope. And that it only believes that more violence is the solution.”
Randolph is the 44th death row inmate executed in the United States this year.