Florida carried out the execution of 65-year-old Melvin Trotter on Tuesday evening, marking the state’s second execution of the year. Trotter was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. ET at Florida State Prison after receiving a lethal injection for the 1986 killing of a beloved local grocery store owner.
Trotter was convicted in the death of 70-year-old Virgie Langford, a mother of four who had operated her small mom-and-pop grocery store in Palmetto for five decades. Langford was on the verge of retirement and selling off her final inventory when the fatal encounter occurred.
On June 16, 1986, Trotter entered Langford’s Grocery Store and began stealing from the cash register, taking about $100 and several food stamps. During the robbery, Trotter used a butcher knife with a foot-long blade to stab Langford seven times.
While Langford initially survived the attack and was able to identify Trotter to authorities, she suffered cardiac arrest and died on the way to emergency surgery. Prosecutors described the crime as “brutal and sadistic,” noting that Trotter used the stolen money to purchase rock cocaine immediately after fleeing the scene.
Throughout his decades of appeals, Trotter’s attorneys argued that he should be spared because he was under the influence of drugs during the murder and lacked premeditation because he arrived at the store unarmed. They also pointed to early school records and IQ scores suggesting intellectual disabilities. However, the Florida Supreme Court and other lower courts repeatedly ruled that later cognitive evaluations outweighed those early findings, keeping his death sentence in place.
For the Langford family, the execution ended a wait for justice that spanned four generations. Langford was remembered by her children as a hardworking woman who ran her business through the Great Depression, wars, and the Civil Rights era without prejudice.
“She taught all four of her children… ‘You observe and listen to the words and actions coming from within,’ no matter what color their skin may be,” her children wrote in a published community message.
The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the execution Tuesday by denying a final application for a stay. For his last meal, Trotter requested fish, cornbread, cake, and a soda.
This marks the fourth execution in the United States this year. Florida is currently scheduled to carry out its next execution on March 3, involving Billy Leon Kearse, who was convicted of the 1991 murder of Fort Pierce Police Officer Danny Parrish.
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