A 74-year-old man convicted of killing a 16-year-old girl and wounding two of her friends nearly five decades ago is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Tuesday evening.
Harold Gene Lucas will receive a three-drug lethal injection at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke. The execution marks the 14th in Florida this year and the first of three scheduled by the state for September under death warrants signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Lucas chose not to challenge the death warrant, declining to file appeals with either the Florida Supreme Court or the U.S. Supreme Court. A circuit judge formally approved his request to waive all remaining post-conviction proceedings.
“I’ve been on death row for 50 years, and I have no desire to carry this any further,” Lucas told the judge, according to court transcripts. “The sooner it’s over, the better I’ll enjoy it. I am tired.”
Lucas was convicted of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder in the August 1976 shooting of Jill Piper and the wounding of Richard Byrd Jr. and Terri Rice.
According to court records, Lucas was 24 years old at the time of the attack in Bonita Springs, located south of Fort Myers. Authorities said Lucas had known Piper for four years, had previously worked for her family, and had dated the teenager. A friend reported that Lucas had expressed intentions to marry her.
About a week before the shooting, Lucas was arrested for trespassing at Piper’s home. On the day of the attack, the two had two separate arguments hours apart, and witnesses reported hearing Lucas threaten Piper’s life.
Piper asked Byrd and Rice to stay at her house that evening for protection. Lucas later arrived with a rifle and shot Piper multiple times while she pleaded for her life. He then shot and injured Byrd and Rice before fleeing. Law enforcement arrested Lucas the next day.
Lucas was sentenced to death five separate times between 1977 and 1990 due to repeated interventions by the Florida Supreme Court. The initial 1977 death sentence, recommended unanimously by a jury, was overturned because the trial judge improperly weighed the attempted murders in the sentencing decision. The original judge issued a second death sentence in 1980 before dying ahead of further proceedings.
A second judge handed down a third death sentence in 1985, but the state supreme court ordered a new sentencing jury while upholding the guilty verdict.
A new jury recommended execution by an 11-1 vote in 1987, leading to a fourth sentence. Following another court review regarding the clarity of the sentencing order, the judge imposed a fifth and final death sentence in 1990. Subsequent appeals were denied.
READ: Florida AG: Georgia Duo Charged After 4 Children Trapped In ‘Rolling Prison’ For 6 Years
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