The State of Florida executed 70-year-old James Ernest Hitchcock by lethal injection at 6:00 p.m. Thursday, ending a legal saga that spanned five decades and multiple death sentences.
The three-drug protocol was administered at Florida State Prison near Starke, marking the final chapter for a man first sent to death row in 1977 for the July 31, 1976, murder of Cynthia Driggers.
Hitchcock’s journey through the Florida justice system was marked by constant litigation. Following his initial conviction for first-degree murder, he saw his death sentence overturned three separate times due to various legal flaws.
He was subsequently resentenced to death in 1988, 1993, and finally in 1996, where a jury voted 10-2 in favor of the execution.
In the days leading up to the execution, Hitchcock’s attorneys made a final push for emergency intervention from the U.S. Supreme Court.
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They argued that Florida was moving forward despite what they characterized as substantial evidence of innocence and complained that the state was unlawfully blocking access to records regarding the lethal injection protocol.
A central piece of the defense’s argument involved Hitchcock’s late brother, Richard. Although James admitted to unlawful sexual conduct at his trial, he maintained that Richard was the actual killer. He testified that his own earlier confession was a false product of isolation and suicidal ideation.
Over the years, six witnesses came forward claiming Richard Hitchcock had confessed to the crime, with one quoting him as saying he “murdered that girl in Florida” and “blamed it on my brother.”
These witnesses, who also described Richard as a violent man prone to choking women, stated they only felt safe enough to speak after Richard’s death in the mid-1990s. However, a resentencing judge dismissed their claims as not credible due to the delay, meaning no jury ever heard the full scope of the alleged confessions.
“The State of Florida is preparing to execute a man despite credible evidence that another person confessed,” Grace Hanna, Executive Director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP), said before the sentence was carried out. “When witnesses say they stayed silent out of fear, their responses reflect the reality of trauma and should prompt careful scrutiny, not dismissal. Death is irreversible.”
Herman Lindsey, a Florida death row exoneree and Executive Director of Witness to Innocence, also voiced concerns about the finality of the act. “I’m proof that Florida has been wrong before—and executing James Hitchcock risks making that mistake permanent,” Lindsey said.
Despite the petitions and a public campaign for clemency directed at Governor Ron DeSantis, the execution proceeded as scheduled. Florida currently holds the record for the most death row exonerations in the United States, with 30 individuals cleared since 1973.
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