Donald David Dillbeck, 59, who was convicted in the 1990 stabbing death of a woman in a Tallahassee mall parking lot, is scheduled to be executed on Thursday, February 23, 2023.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the death warrant on Monday, January 23.
In 1979, Dillbeck ran from Lee County Deputy Sheriff Dwight Lynn Hall while being questioned. Once Hall caught up with him, the two men struggled. Dillbeck grabbed the deputy’s gun and shot him to death.
Dillbeck confessed to the murder and was sentenced to life in prison.
In the news: Florida Man, Armed With Flare Gun And Dive Knife, Threatened Marina Employees As He Burglarized Boats
In 1990, while serving his life sentence for killing Deputy Hall, he walked away from a catering function in Quincy where he and other inmates were working.
Faye Vann, who was sitting in the car, resisted and was fatally stabbed.
Dillbeck, now 59, was arrested after crashing the car and was convicted in 1991 of first-degree murder, armed robbery, and armed burglary, Department of Corrections records show.
Dillbeck would be the first Florida inmate executed since Gary Ray Bowles, who was executed in August 2019 for a 1994 murder in Jacksonville.
“My family was robbed of a wonderful lady… We want you to sign a death warrant for Dillbeck,” Vann’s nephew told the governor. “It is time for closure.”
In the news: Parents Accused Of Torturing Kids, Forcing Them Into ‘Igloo-Style Doghouse,’ Boy Feared Dead
Appeal Rejected
In a series of documents filed earlier this month, Dillbeck’s attorneys pointed to his diagnosis with a condition related to being exposed to alcohol before birth.
The attorneys argued that the condition, Neurodevelopmental Disorder associated with Prenatal Alcohol Exposure, or ND-PAE, is “recognized by the medical community as an intellectual disability-equivalent condition.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that executing intellectually disabled people violates the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
In the news: VIDEO: Woman Who Dismembered And Decapitated Lover, Attacks Lawyer In Court
On Thursday, February 16, the Florida Supreme Court rejected Dillbeck’s appeal.
Justices also refused to issue a stay of the execution of Dillbeck.
In asking the Supreme Court to block the execution, Dillbeck’s attorneys pointed, in part, to his diagnosis with a condition related to being exposed to alcohol before birth.
The attorneys argued that the condition, neurodevelopmental disorder associated with prenatal alcohol exposure, or ND-PAE, is “recognized by the medical community as an intellectual disability-equivalent condition.” The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that executing intellectually disabled people violates the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
In the news: Polk County Deputy Terminated After DUI Arrest In Bartow
Results of testing “indicated widespread and profound neurological damage throughout Mr. Dillbeck’s brain, with particular abnormality in the portions of the brain most responsible for regulating planning, mood, judgment, behavior, impulse control and intentionality,” the attorneys wrote in a Feb. 10 brief at the Florida Supreme Court. “These results showed Mr. Dillbeck to be developmentally disabled and biologically predisposed to overreact to stress.”
But justices Thursday rejected the argument on a series of grounds, including that in 2020 the court denied a motion on the issue because it found Dillbeck and his attorneys “had failed to diligently pursue a diagnosis of ND-PAE.”
Dillbeck, now 59, was initially sentenced to life in prison in the 1979 shooting death of Lee County sheriff’s Deputy Dwight Lynn Hall when Dillbeck was 15. But in 1990, he walked away from a catering function in Quincy where he and other inmates were working.
Dillbeck went to Tallahassee, got a knife and tried to carjack a vehicle, according to court documents. Faye Vann, who was sitting in the car, resisted and was fatally stabbed, with Dillbeck then arrested after crashing the car. He was convicted in 1991 of first-degree murder, armed robbery and armed burglary, Department of Corrections records show.
If the death sentence is carried out, Dillbeck would be the first Florida inmate executed since Gary Ray Bowles was put to death by lethal injection in August 2019. Bowles was executed for a 1994 murder in Jacksonville.
In the news: VIDEO: Florida Mom Arrested After Her 9-Year-Old Child Messes Up During Driver’s Training
Death-penalty opponents have called on DeSantis to halt the execution.
In a Feb. 6 letter to the governor, Michael Sheedy, executive director of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, said Dillbeck’s “heinous and violent crimes have caused tremendous grief and suffering to the victims’ loved ones and communities.”
But the letter pointed to “mitigating” circumstances, such as neurological damage caused by Dillbeck exposure to alcohol before birth and physical and sexual abuse when Dillbeck was a child.
“We also ask that you choose life for Mr. Dillbeck because of the harms caused by implementing the death penalty in Florida,” Sheedy wrote. “Its use is a violation of the dignity of the person and an indictment on the low value placed on human life itself in society. We hold that the death penalty should be inadmissible due to modern systems of incarceration whereby society can be kept safe and prisoners punished.”
Android Users, Click Here To Download The Free Press App And Never Miss A Story. Follow Us On Facebook Here Or Twitter Here.